ILHAM ALIEV: JURISDICTION OF AZERBAIJAN OVER NAGORNY KARABAKH CANNOT BE SUBJECT OF COMPROMISE

YEREVAN, MAY 20. ARMINFO. Jurisdiction of Azerbaijan over Nagorny
Karabakh cannot be a subject of a compromise. As Azeri mass media
informed today, stated Azeri President Ilham Aliev speaking at the
CE summit in Warsaw.

“We cannot make any concessions concerning our territorial integrity.
We are respectful to the territorial integrity of all the world
countries and certainly we want they threat with respect to the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan as well”, he stated.

Informing the international community once again about consequences
of both the conflict and the “occupation of 20 percent of Azeri
territories”, Aliev stated that “the CE position on this issues give
big hopes to us” and added that “position of Azerbaijan on Karabakh
conflict peaceful settlement has always based on standards and
principles of the international law”.

“Naturally, we cannot be reconciled in the 21st century with a fact
that one country being a member of the CE occupies the territory of
another member-country. We demand to return our lands and to restore
our territorial integrity”, Aliev stated. At the same time, he noted
the readiness of the Azeri part to compromises.

“We think that our offer to give Armenian people of Nagorny Karabakh
the highest status of autonomy as far as possible is a sufficiently
serious compromise. Besides, we guarantee the safety of each person
living in the region. This offer may be considered as an extremely
important element for the thorough settlement”, Aliev noted. He
expressed an opinion that the conflict settlement may be reached thanks
to the attention of international community to this issue. “We think
useful the peaceful negotiations conducted on presidents’ and foreign
ministers’ level. Azerbaijan is an adherent of conflict’s peaceful
settlement. We think that all the appropriate organizations – the
OSCE Minsk Group, the CE and the EU may pay more attention to this
significant issue. This conflict poses a treat to both the stability
and the development in our region and it is a main obstacle on the
way of our integration to Europe”, Aliev concluded. -r-