US advises citizens to avoid travel to Nagorno-Karabakh – embassy

US advises citizens to avoid travel to Nagorno-Karabakh – embassy
# 30 June 2016 11:22 (UTC +04:00)

The embassy was commenting on the illegal visit by the former US ambassador to Armenia John Evans to Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region occupied by Armenia.

“Ambassador Evans is no longer a US government employee and is a private citizen. We advise private U.S. citizens to avoid travel to Nagorno-Karabakh,” said the embassy.

The United States, along with the rest of the international community, including Armenia, does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh, the embassy stressed.

John Evans, as an advisor to the Children of Armenia Fund’s Board of Directors, together with the head of the Fund met on June 29 with Bako Sahakyan, “leader” of the so-called regime in Nagorno-Karabakh.

John Evans served as US ambassador to Armenia in 2004-2006.

The name of the former US ambassador to Armenia John Evans will be added to the list of undesirable persons of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry for making an illegal visit to Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani foreign ministry, told APA on June 29.

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 CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) 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, the 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.

Nagorno Garabagh

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