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Armenian provocations aimed at undermining peace process: Azerbaijani deputy FM

28 February 2017 15:41 (UTC +04:00)

Armenia’s constant armed provocations along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops are aimed at escalating the tension and undermining the peace process, said Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov.

“No one doubts that all the Azerbaijani lands occupied by Armenia will be liberated and over one million refugees and IDPs will be returned to their native lands,” Khalafov said during his meeting with Moldova’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Lilian Darii, APA reported.

He noted that Azerbaijan and Moldova are faced with similar problems - a violation of the territorial integrity.

Khalafov accused Armenia of making political manipulation and hindering the negotiation process on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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.