Nagorno Garabagh

Nagorno Garabagh

Azerbaijan says UN support for substantive talks on Karabakh settlement â€˜highly appreciatedâ€™

20 July 2017 15:51 (UTC +04:00)

UN support for substantive talks on the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is highly appreciated, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said during his meeting with UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav JenÄa, the Foreign Ministry told APA.

The minister outlined the role of the UN specialized agencies, particularly the High Commissioner for Refugees in preventing the humanitarian disaster that Azerbaijan has faced as a result of the conflict, and addressing the social problems of refugees and internally displaced persons.

Minister Mammadyarov talked about the current status of negotiation process on Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, stressing that troops of Armenia should be fully and unconditionally withdrawn from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in accordance with relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, which constitute the basis of the conflict.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 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.