Nagorno Garabagh

Nagorno Garabagh

Azerbaijan pleased with stance of Muslim countries on Karabakh conflict â€“ PA official

20 April 2017 10:07 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan is pleased with the stance of Muslim countries regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which resulted in the occupation of twenty percent of Azerbaijani territory and over one million Azerbaijanis becoming refugees, said Bahruz Hasanov, an official of the public and political affairs department at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration.

He made the remarks at a conference held in Baku April 20 within the framework of the ‘Year of Islamic Solidarity' in Azerbaijan and on the eve of the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games, APA reported.

He noted that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan does not recognize Armenia as a state, and Turkey, despite having recognized Armenia, does not have any relations with it.

“Some Muslim countries attempt to establish ties with Armenia, which runs contrary to Islamic solidarity," said Hasanov.

He pointed out that cooperation with a country that has been destroying Islamic cultural monuments in occupied Azerbaijani lands is one of the obstacles in Azerbaijan’s way toward liberating its lands.

“Cooperating with an invader is kind of justifying invasion,” the PA official added.

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 December 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.