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PRESS RELEASE
25 November 2004

Discussion on the issue of “The situation in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan”

in the UN General Assembly Session

“The situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan” issue was
included in the agenda of the regular session of the UN General Assembly on
November 23. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Eldar Mamedyarov introduced the
relevant draft, while the Turkish and Pakistani representatives Altay
Cengizer and Masood Khalid delivered parallel speeches. US representative
Ms. Susan Moore gave a speech on behalf of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen.

The Permanent Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the UN,
Ambassador H.E. Armen Martirosyan, presented the Armenian position on the
issue. He implicated the propagandist essence of the Azeri proposal by
recalling that from the very beginning the idea of including the issue on
the GA’s agenda did not have the support of most countries. The MG
co-chairmen also declared their opposition, considering it both destructive
and inappropriate.

“Azerbaijan tries to present its resolution from the perspective of human
rights and humanitarian law,” stated A.Martirosyan. “And it is accomplishing
by the country which has violated these laws itself – planned and
systematically carried out massacres of Armenians in Baku, cities of Sumgait
and Kirovabad from 1988 to 1990 during peacetime, tries to cloak its own
actions by selective application of separate points of international
humanitarian law. It limits the application of the return of refugees to
“the area of conflict” and to ethnic Azeris only, conveniently leaving out
the rights of over 400 000 Armenians under the same laws, particularly those
from the immediate conflict zone from Shahumian, Getashen and Northern
Martakert. Their homes today are fully confiscated and populated by ethnic
Azeris,”- stated the Armenian representative.

“With this resolution Azerbaijan tries to dissect the issue of the
so-called “occupied territories” from the whole package of negotiations.
However, it fails to admit that those territories have come under the
control of Nagorno Karabagh Armenians as a result of the war unleashed by
Azerbaijan in an attempt to stifle the peaceful drive of the people of
Nagorno Karabagh for self-determination,” stated A. Martirosyan.

“Today those territories are serving as security belt around Nagorno
Karabagh. Given the efforts for military suppression in the very recent
past, as well as the war-mongering rhetoric of the current Azerbaijani
leadership, the issue of those territories cannot be resolved unless there
is a resolution on the status of Nagorno Karabagh, and security guarantees
are provided,” stressed A. Martirosyan.

In his speech Martirosyan stated again that Nagorno Karabagh has never been
part of independent Azerbaijan. “The people of Nagorno Karabagh have proven
their right to live freely and securely on their own territory both legally
through a referendum conducted in 1991 in full conformity of the existing
Soviet legislation of the time, and by defending this right in the war
unleashed against its population by Azerbaijan,” stated the Armenian
ambassador. He said that the peace should be achieved, first and foremost,
between Nagorno Karabagh and Azerbaijan, which has rejected and walked out
of every single peace proposal made by the OSCE Minsk Group for the last six
years.

“Azerbaijan is not interested in the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno
Karabagh conflict,” stated Martirosyan. “The increased belligerent rhetoric
and incitement of anti-Armenian hatred in Azerbaijan clearly testifies to
the true intentions of its current leadership. The present Azerbaijani
motion aims at torpedoing the negotiations within the OSCE Minsk Group and
diverting the international community’s efforts into parallel processes,
which would allow it to maneuver between them without committing to the
final settlement of the conflict. Azerbaijan tries to use the United Nations
and its General Assembly to do that, Azerbaijan’s initiative to undo the
peace process should not be supported.”

The Assembly was then informed that action on the draft resolution on the
situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan would be taken at a
later date.