Azernbaijan, Baku / corr Trend S.Agayeva / "Instead of recognizing the Azerbaijani territory as their own, the Armenian opposition must be left to recognize their mistakes and not to repeat them," Khazar Ibrahim, the spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, said. He was commenting on reports on the development of a draft by the Armenian opposition on the recognition of the so-called ' Nagorno-Karabakh Republic'.
On 28 August the opposition faction submitted to Parliament a draft law on the recognition of the so-called ' Nagorno-Karabakh Republic'. Raffi Ovanesian, the head of the 'Heritage' faction, sent documents to the Armenian Speaker Tigran Torosian.
The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988 due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.