BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov.18
Trend:
Azerbaijan highly appreciates Russia's efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Trend reports on Nov.18 referring to the press service of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
According to the ministry, Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and the only co-chairing country in the OSCE Minsk Group, directly bordering and having long-term historical ties with Azerbaijan, which explains Russia's direct interest in strengthening security, stability and peace in the South Caucasus.
“In his interview, Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 17 highlighted the important role played by the mediation of the Russian side in reaching the agreements of November 9. The personal role of the president, his signature under the trilateral statement of November 9 this year represent his extremely important contribution to the peaceful settlement process and the guarantee of its irreversibility,” the ministry said.
“We fully share the assessment of the president of Russia that an important achievement of the trilateral statement is the cessation of bloodshed. The Azerbaijani side has always and completely, starting from the first minutes of the war, supported the calls of the international community for a ceasefire," noted the ministry.
As the ministry pointed out, in his interview the Russian president also touched upon the history of the settlement process.
“The president’s words that Nagorno-Karabakh and all adjacent districts are an integral part of Azerbaijan are of particular importance from the point of view of international law. This position of Russia rests on a solid foundation of UN Security Council resolutions, decisions of the OSCE and other international organizations,” the ministry said.
“The statement made in an interview that the occupied territories of our country were under the control of Armenia is extremely important. This testifies to the complete collapse of the attempts of the Armenian side to mislead the world community and bring forward the illegal regime that was established by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.”
“In the same way, the attempts of the Armenian leadership to expand the framework of the conflict and involve the Collective Security Treaty Organization in it failed. In his interview, the president of Russia once again clearly stated that no one encroached on the territory of Armenia. Thus, the position of Azerbaijan was confirmed that all hostilities were taking place exclusively on the territory of our country, which was occupied by the armed forces of Armenia in the 1990s,” the ministry added.
“It should be especially stressed that the Russian president characterized the possible refusal of the Armenian side to fulfill the terms of the agreements of November 9 this year as "a huge mistake" and even as "suicide." We fully share this assessment. As the president wisely noted, the trilateral statement reached with the active support of Russia creates a good basis for normalizing relations in the long term," concluded the ministry.
Following over a month of military action to liberate its territories from Armenian occupation, Azerbaijan has pushed Armenia to sign the surrender document. A joint statement on the matter was made by Azerbaijani president, Armenia's PM and the president of Russia.
A complete ceasefire and a cessation of all hostilities in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were introduced at 00:00 hours (Moscow time) on 10 November 2020.
Armenian Armed Forces launched a large-scale military attack on positions of Azerbaijani army on the front line, using large-caliber weapons, mortars and artillery on Sept. 27. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-offensive along the entire front.
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, 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.