BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The 44-day 2020 second Karabakh war was a liberation war that began as a result of Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territories and mass ethnic cleansings, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ayhan Hajizada said on Twitter, Trend reports.
Hajizada made the remark in response to statements made by Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Vaan Kostanian.
"For 28 years, Armenia had refused negotiations, rejected all peaceful proposals, claimed that 'Karabakh is Armenia', and menaced Azerbaijan with a 'new war for new territories'. Azerbaijan's actions have always been based on domestic legislation, the UN Charter, and the Helsinki Final Act," he noted.
Following the second Karabakh war, Azerbaijan proposed five basic principles for the normalization of relations with Armenia:
- mutual recognition of sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of international borders, and political independence of each other;
- mutual confirmation of the absence of territorial claims by the states against each other and a legal obligation not to make such claims in the future;
- refrain from threatening each other's security in interstate relations, from using threats and force against political independence and territorial integrity, as well as from other circumstances incompatible with the purposes of the UN Charter;
- delimitation and demarcation of the state border, establishment of diplomatic relations;
- opening of transport and communications, the establishment of other relevant communications, and cooperation in other areas of mutual interest.