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13 June 2017

Apa.Az

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry urged foreign nationals to refrain from illegal participation in an international conference which Armenia plans to hold in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, the foreign ministry spokesman, Hikmat Hajiyev, told APA.  Hajiyev said that Armenia’s plans to hold an international youth conference in the occupied Azerbaijani territories on September 14-17.

He noted that allegedly, the main purpose of the event, to be organized by Armenia’s Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, is to discuss the problems and prospects of recognizing the self-proclaimed regime with the participation of young experts.

 “Usually, such events are mainly attended by Armenian citizens and two or three people of Armenian origin from other countries,” said Hajiyev.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that the real goal of the Armenian side is political provocation, the promotion of the so-called regime in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, and the use of invited persons as a tool for political propaganda. 

He noted that Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry urges foreign nationals not to succumb to Armenia’s lie, not to become a tool for Yerevan’s propaganda and refrain from illegal visits to the occupied Azerbaijani territories which imply violation of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and laws.

Hajiyev reminded that illegal visits to the occupied lands entail legal liability.

He also urged world countries to take measures to prevent the participation of their citizens in this international conference.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, in coordination with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, will inform international youth organizations about another provocation of Armenia, added 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.