Azerbaijan, Baku, 20 November / Trend corr. I.Alizade/ Baku stated that Azerbaijan would struggle until the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven regions attached to it from the Armenian occupation. "Nagorno-Karabakh and seven regions attached to it are the Azerbaijani territory, we will struggle and act to liberate these occupied territories and this is the major position of the Azerbaijani authorities," Elnur Aslanov, head of the Political Analysis and Dataware Department of the Azerbaijani President's Administration, told journalists on 20 November.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost the Nagorno-Karabakh, except of Shusha and Khojali, in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian Armed Forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and Nagorno-Karabakh's seven surrounding regions. 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 the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.
The Armenian media claims that Yerevan will return five Azerbaijani occupied regions at the first stage, the referendum will be held to determine status of Nagorno-Karabakh in two years and finally, Armenia will return Kalbajar region to Azerbaijan.
Both Nagorno-Karabakh and its seven surrounding regions are the Azerbaijani territories and will be the Azerbaijani territories in future, as well, the official of the President's Administration said.
Serzh Sargsyan, the Armenian President, will discuss the current situation on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement with leader of political parties of the country.
"Discussions on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement were held at the Azerbaijani Parliament several years ago. At present we do not need to hold such a discussion," Aslanov said.
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