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22 May 2016

Trend

Today everyone understands that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must sooner or later be resolved peacefully and through negotiations, Novruz Mammadov, deputy head of Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administration's foreign relations department said in an interview with ANS TV channel.

Novruz Mammadov said that the April events on the frontline have once again attracted the attention of international community, the co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as a variety of international and regional organizations to the Karabakh conflict, and have shown that the conflict is not frozen.

Mammadov also said that an opinion was formed in Europe, the US and Russia that the conflict needs attention and that time has come to find a solution to it.

Speaking on the presidential meeting held in Vienna on May 16, Mammadov said that Azerbaijan's desire is to fairly settle the conflict based on within the framework of international law.

Commenting on the expansion of the powers of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman after the Vienna meeting, Mammadov said that Azerbaijan has expressed its official position on the issue.

"The main idea here was to strengthen the ceasefire regime. Armenia, just as in the beginning of April, has been constantly engaged in provocations. In this regard, several proposals were expressed, and one of them is an extension of the mandate of the OSCE Representative for monitoring. We said that that we do not object to this proposal," Mammadov said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.