Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 2
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
The US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills earlier made a special statement on withdrawing Armenian troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliamentary Committee for International and Inter-Parliamentary Relations Samad Seyidov told Trend Nov. 2.
This statement caused great resonance in Armenia, and some time after that, US National Security Adviser John Bolton made a unique and very important statement during his stay in Armenia, Seyidov, who also heads the Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said.
“Bolton repeated to the Armenian leadership the views expressed by the Azerbaijani side,” said Seyidov. “John Bolton said that if Armenia wants to achieve sustainable development, it should be able to build normal relations with neighbor states. That is, this is the only way out for Armenia, there is no other option.”
Seyidov added that Azerbaijan sees the support to its fair position by all countries of the region and the world community.
He said that Armenia, in order to get out of the situation in which the country put itself, needs to build relations with neighboring countries within international laws.
“The recent processes taking place in Armenia are perceived with doubt by Russia,” added Seyidov.
He stressed that one of the main goals of Bolton’s visit is to get more detailed information on how the Azerbaijani side views the situation in resolving this conflict.
Earlier, Istanbul hosted the meetings of foreign ministers of the countries of the region in trilateral formats - namely, on October 29, a meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia was held, and on October 30, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran met.
The Istanbul Declaration signed at both meetings of the trilateral format once again reflected the respect and support to the principles of international law, in particular sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of internationally recognized borders, specific and principled position on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of these principles.
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.