Nagorno Garabagh

Nagorno Garabagh

Azerbaijani FM: UNSC resolutions to remain in force until implementation

20 November 2017 10:49 (UTC +04:00)

There is no deadline for the UN Security Council’s resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and they continue to be in force until they are implemented, said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

UN resolutions demand an unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijani lands, Mammadyarov told a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Baku on Monday, APA reports.

“I have no doubt that these resolutions will be implemented. We’re advancing towards it,” added the minister.

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.