BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct.17
Trend:
Claims on recognizing illegal puppet regime in the occupied Azerbaijani territories by Italian Milan city's council are another provocation of Armenia and a part of propaganda based on falsifications, Spokesperson of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva said, Trend reports.
According to Abdullayeva, the matter concerns the appeal of Italy’s Milan City Council on the initiative of the local Honorary Consulate of Armenia and the Armenian community of this city.
“In this regard, we’d like to point out that in Italy, members of the local authority of each territorial unit can turn to the central government on any issue. These appeals have no legal basis and do not entail legal consequences,” she noted. “At the same time, not a single territorial unit of Italy has the right to ‘recognition’. The ‘appeal’ presented by the Armenian side as ‘recognition’, similarly, has no legal basis and doesn’t entail any legal consequences.”
The spokesperson noted that Italy's foreign policy is determined by the Central Government, the position of which on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is unambiguous and reflected in the ‘Joint Declaration on Strengthening Multidimensional Strategic Partnership’ signed by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on February 20, 2020, in Rome.
By this declaration, Italy has reaffirmed its respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, and supported the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of these principles, added Abdullayeva.
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, the 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 the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.