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Azerbaijan's ambassador to UN sends letter to Secretary General over cease-fire violations by Armenia

Politics Materials 2 July 2011 21:49 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, July 2 /Trend, R Darakhshan /

Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the UN Agshin Mehdiyev has sent a letter to the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, says a statement by the country's permanent mission to the United Nations.

The letter contains a list of violations of the ceasefire by Armenia in May this year and reports that two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed and one was seriously injured as their result.

The paper also notes that over the last months the armed forces of Armenia intensified attacks on Azerbaijani civilians and civilian objects. On March 8, a nine-year-old Azerbaijani child was shot dead by an Armenian sniper, on May 26, the civilian population of the Chiragli village of the Agdam district of Azerbaijan was subjected to continuous fire by the armed forces of Armenia and on June 3 Elmar Piriyev, a resident of the Aghjabadi district of the country, was killed by Armenian militaries in the Chemenli village of the Agdam district situated near the front line.

"Besides such inhuman and unjustifiable actions, the high-ranking officials of Armenia continued their irresponsible statements and provocative visits to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, thus openly and deliberately challenging the international mediation efforts aimed at the soonest settlement of the conflict", the document says.

The letter says that in an interview on May 16 to the Moskovskie Novosti (Moscow News) newspaper, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan confirmed once again that the Armenian side considers the conflict settlement process only as a means of achieving the annexation of Azerbaijani territories.

"The views of the President of Armenia about the relevant international legal principles and their application and scope in the context of the settlement of the conflict unambiguously testify to the fundamental and persistent denial by this State Member of the United Nations of the generally accepted norms and principles of international law", the letter says.

The letter was also circulated in the General Assembly and UN Security Council.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

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