Ziyafat Asgarov: I expect nothing from Minsk Group co-chairs’ upcoming visit to region

Ziyafat Asgarov: I expect nothing from Minsk Group co-chairs’ upcoming visit to region
# 14 June 2017 11:34 (UTC +04:00)

The first deputy speaker of Azerbaijan’s parliament, Ziyafat Asgarov, said on Wednesday he expects nothing from the upcoming visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to the region.

“The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are trying to evade from their responsibility. They said they would favor Azerbaijan and Armenian coming to agreement on their own. I expect nothing from the Minsk Group co-chairs’ upcoming visit to the region,” Asgarov said.

The deputy speaker noted that if Azerbaijan and Armenia had to resolve the problem on their own, there would be no need for the OSCE Minsk Group.

“The co-chairs have to recognize Armenia as an invader and highlight that the occupied lands must be freed. Otherwise I expect nothing of the co-chairs,” he added.

Asgarov stressed that the Armenian side has always violated the ceasefire whenever the co-chairs have visited the region.

“They still commit the same provocations and put the blame on Azerbaijan. This is known to both us and the co-chairs. But why the co-chairs do not react to these provocations,” he 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 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 1994.

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

#
#

THE OPERATION IS BEING PERFORMED