Armenia’s claim that the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can be resolved on the basis of one single document is utopia, the spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, Hikmat Hajiyev, told APA.
He was commenting on Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Jan. 24
Hajiyev said that the main injustice in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or as the Armenian leadership called it, the “deficit of justice”, is primarily the occupation of sovereign territories of Azerbaijan and ethnic cleansing against more than one million Azerbaijanis in the occupied territories and violation of their all fundamental rights.
Despite the fact that Armenia took obligations on the conflict’s settlement when becoming a member of the Council of Europe, it has not fulfilled them yet, noted the spokesman.
“While the Council of Europe is responsible for the formation of a single legal space between the member states, but as a member of this organization, Armenia continues to hold under occupation the territories of another member state, Azerbaijan,” said Hajiyev, stressing that attempts to alter the recognized borders of other states or to seize land by force are unacceptable.
“We hope that the leadership of the Council of Europe has raised such issues before the Armenian leadership, issues such as the fundamental rights of Azerbaijani IDPs and refugees, prescribed in the European Convention on Human Rights,” he added.
The spokesman went on to say that Azerbaijan’s fair position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is known and supported by the entire international community.
“Azerbaijan’s position is based on the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, international law and the Helsinki Final Act,” he said.
Hajiyev noted that the Armenian community of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region together with the Azerbaijani community can use the right to determine their self-determination within the borders of Azerbaijan.
“In order to achieve progress in resolving the conflict, as part of the phased process, Armenia must withdraw its troops from the districts adjacent to Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and it is necessary to create a base for the next step. This is the only possible and real option of the conflict settlement. Thus, the confidence of Azerbaijan, as a party that suffered occupation and aggression, should be ensured,” he said.
The spokesman recalled that in August 2017, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Richard Hoagland, announced gradual steps to be taken to resolve the conflict.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has recently called for a step-by-step solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, added Hajiyev.
He stressed that Armenia’s claim that the complicated Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can be resolved on the basis of one single document is utopia and is nothing more than an attempt to avoid the conflict settlement.
The fact that Armenia has targeted civilians throughout the line of contact with heavy weapons in April 2016 once again reminded us of the pains of the Khojaly genocide, which the Armenian President personally participated in. The counter-attack measures of the Azerbaijani armed forces, prevented the provocations and attacks by Armenia against civilians.
Proceedings carried out by the USSR General Prosecutor's Office on the 1988 Sumgayit events organized by the USSR leadership, the USSR State Security Committee and the Armenian SSR State Security Committee were confirmed by the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office which later on took over proceedings. The organizer of the Sumgayit events, the person who committed the events, originally from Armenia, Eduard Grigoryan, was suprisingly released from prison in Armenia. Currently, Armenia's leadership very well knows where he is under special protection.
The crime committed in Sumqayit was investigated and its participants, including Azerbaijanis, were punished with the most severe punishment. No crimes committed against Azerbaijanis in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, including a criminal act against humanity - Khojaly genocide, has been investigated in Armenia.
The Armenian leadership once again tried to deceive the international community and divert attention from Armenia’s rooted political, economic and social problems with the Armenian President's PACE speech.
The Armenian leadership should finally acknowledge that the sooner the conflict is settled, the sooner will the Armenian population benefit from the regional cooperation opportunities," the foreign ministry spokesman noted.
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