Baku, Azerbaijan, March 1
Trend:
Each country has a sovereign right to include such a sensitive issue as the violation of territorial integrity on the agenda of international organizations, Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said March 1.
He made the remarks during the meeting with PACE President Pedro Agramunt who is on an official visit to Baku.
Changing the internationally recognized borders of states by using force is inadmissible, said Mammadyarov.
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and the whole international community have recognized the fact that maintaining the status quo in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is unacceptable and in order to achieve progress in resolving the conflict, Armenian armed forces should withdraw from Azerbaijan's occupied territories as required by the resolutions of the UN Security Council, the foreign minister added.
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 US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Mammadyarov also urged international organizations to pay special attention to the violation of rights of over a million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs.
Pedro Agramunt, for his part, highlighted the prospects for developing the cooperation between PACE and Azerbaijan.