Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28
Trend:
People-to-people diplomacy plays a leading role in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Artur Agajanov, Armenian historian and a member of the board of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Civil Peace Platform.
He was addressing an international conference titled “Model of Azerbaijani Multiculturalism: Ethnocultural Diversity” in Baku Nov. 28.
He noted that all options for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement have been put forward, but none of them was useful.
The only positive thing is that large-scale military operations were not launched, he added.
Touching upon the activity of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Civil Peace Platform, Agajanov said that there are both positive and negative attitudes towards the platform’s activity.
“However, people are gradually joining us, and this makes us happy,” added the historian.
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 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.