Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov made a statement for the General Debate of the 61st session of the UN General Assembly on 25 September 2006, Trend reports. At the outset, Mammadyarov congratulated the participants in the Assembly with the election to the post of the President of UN General Assembly.
The situation in the occupied territory of Azerbaijan recently has become a subject of urgent consideration by the General Assembly due to massive fires registered in those areas. The Assembly adopted a resolution, without a vote, stressing the necessity to conduct an urgent environmental operation with a view to suppressing the fires, overcoming their detrimental impact and rehabilitating the affected territories.
The resolution has a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, it envisages a number of practical steps to counteract the fires, while on the other hand, it serves to attract the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which will help in the implementation of the resolution and create mutual confidence, which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the talks process. It is only a temporary achievement' the Minister stressed.
Mammadyarov stated that there are still two elements that the parties are still to co-ordinate. This is the issue of a status for Nagorno-Karabakh and the withdrawal of the Armenia forces from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan. There is a general agreement in that the status should be defined with the participation of representatives of both Armenian and Azerbaijani communities. From this end, the Armenian armed forces should step away from their current positions and residents of the occupied territories should be repatriated.
Furthermore, the Minister touched upon the admission of a unified resolution by GUAM countries on resolving static conflicts, the economic situation in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan's activities at the Organization of the Islamic Countries (OIC), the upgrade of relationships between the UN and Azerbaijan, as well as inter-civilization problems.