Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.5
By Seba Agayeva - Trend:
Trial of Azerbaijani hostages on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is illegal, said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov Nov.5 at a press conference after talks with UK Minister for European Affairs David Lidington.
"The issue of the liberation of Azerbaijanis taken hostage in Kalbajar district remains in the focus of Azerbaijan, and we are doing everything so that they would be released," said the minister. "This issue was raised at the meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group in Paris. The mediators promised to address this issue."
He said that the issue takes time.
Mammadyarov said that Armenia has no right to talk about human rights.
"Armenia, which has violated the rights of more than one million Azerbaijanis, has no moral right to talk about human rights," said the minister. "Lidington today met with refugees and internally displaced persons, uprooted from their native lands as a result of the Armenian aggression, and saw their serious condition with his own eyes."
According to Armenian media, during the operation on July 11, Armenian Special Forces in the village of Shaplar of the occupied Kalbajar district, killed Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov, and taken hostage Shahbaz Aliyev and Dilgam Asgarov.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries 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 four U.N. Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.