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11 October 2016

Apa.Az

The presence of Armenian armed forces in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories poses a major threat to regional peace and security, said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, who is on an official visit to the Principality of Liechtenstein.

The FM made the remarks during his meeting with Chairman of the Parliament of Liechtenstein Albert Frick.

Mammadyarov stressed the need to change the unacceptable and unsustainable status quo in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In order to achieve progress in resolving the conflict, Armenia should withdraw its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, he added.

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 OSCE 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, 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 passed by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.