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13 October 2016

Azer News

By Rashid Shirinov

The Council of Europe's (CoE) monitoring mechanism can’t give any desired result without elimination of the occupation, which is the fundamental basis of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Hikmat Hajiyev, the spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, made the remark when commenting on CoE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland’s remark on the need of monitoring missions’ visits to conflict zones.

“Firstly, the occupation and aggression fact, which is an obstacle to solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, must be removed and the Armenian troops must be withdrawn from the occupied Azerbaijani territories,” said Hajiyev.

He also reminded that according to the 221st PACE recommendation, Armenia within the framework of its Council of Europe membership, undertook responsibility in connection with the conflict’s solution.

“The Council of Europe should demand from Armenia to execute these obligations and respect the norms and principles of international law in order to contribute to the conflict’s settlement,” he added.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.