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Azerbaijan demands refutation from UN

28 April 2016 16:39 (UTC +04:00)

According to the information, Hasanov expressed strong objection with regard to the misinformation published on the UNHCR’s website on 11 April about the 2 April 2016 military clashes on the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops and about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Hasanov mentioned that in this regard Azerbaijani ambassador to Austria Galib Israfilov had a meeting with Head of the UNHCR Liaison Office to the OSCE and Vienna- based UN Agencies, Mr. Frank Remus, and the permanent representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, Vagif Sadigov, met with UNHCR spokesperson Leo Dobbs and UNHCR Europe Bureau official Anatoly Poucay.

He reminded Dag Sigurdson of the inadmissibility of the distorted information and its contrast with the UNHCR’s non-political mandate. He outlined that the position expressed in the article contradicts the four UN Security Council resolutions and the UN’s official stance on Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Hasanov strictly warned Dag Sigurdson that although the information was taken down from the website, the issue still needs refutation.

The deputy PM noted that Armenians have carried out constant provocations, shelling residential areas close to the contact line. As a result, IDPs and local population suffered damages and deaths.

“But the press release placed on the UNHCR’s website does not touch on this issue. The publishing of such faulty and distorted information runs contrary to the resolutions of the UN Security Council and other international organizations on the conflict,” he added.

Hasanov also told the guest that such mistakes undermine the confidence in international organizations of the country’s public as well as IDPs.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.