Azerbaijan, Baku, July 12 / Trend M. Aliyev /
Ukraine's position on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement remains unchanged and is based on a respect for Azerbaijan's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, Ukrainian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Alexander Mishchenko told media.
"The Ukrainian-Azerbaijani relations in political and other spheres have real strategic partnership," the ambassador said.
He said that the media is independent and write whatever it wants. But the task of diplomats is to give them certain point of view.
Azerbaijan delivered a protest note to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in connection with the publication of anti-Azerbaijani materials in a special edition of the Ukrainian magazine Image, Counselor of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Ukraine Irfan Davudov told Trend.
The Ukrainian international business magazine Image, with assistance from the Armenian Ambassador to Ukraine, issued a special edition entirely devoted to Armenia and the separatist regime of Nagorno-Karabakh. The anti-Azerbaijani materials and distorted
information were also published there.
Azerbaijan informed the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry that according to the publishers the magazine, allegedly issued under the patronage of the Presidential Administration, is engaged in fraud, the diplomat said.
The Embassy sent a protest to the editors of the magazine and demand an explanation, Davudov said.
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 seven 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 peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.