Share :

Download PDF :

27 April 2017

Apa.Az

Armenia’s plan to hold an international conference in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is another provocation, said Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev, APA reported.

"According to information available to us, Armenia is planning to hold the 8th international conference, entitled “Modern aspects of rehabilitation in medicine”, in Yerevan and in the Armenian-occupied territories of Azerbaijan on 13-15 September 2017. Medical experts from Russia, the Czech Republic, Tajikistan, Germany, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia have been invited to the conference,” said the spokesman.

He noted that Armenia’s purpose is not to discuss modern aspects of medical rehabilitation. “Rather, Armenia is attempting to carry out a political provocation. By this means, Armenia is seeking to promote the illegal regime and manipulate the invited persons as political tools,” said Hajiyev. 

Hajiyev called on foreigners invited to the conference not to succumb to this lie of Armenia and become a propaganda tool in the hands of Yerevan and to avoid illegal visits to the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

“Such visits are a violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and laws of Azerbaijan. It should be noted that those who make illegal visits to the occupied Azerbaijani territories are brought to legal responsibility,” he added.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry urged world countries to take measures to prevent participation of their citizens in another Armenian provocation – an international conference, which Armenia plans to hold in Yerevan and in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, noted Hajiyev.

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.