INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORT ARMENIANS CONCERNING FIRES IN OCCUPIED LANDS OF AZERBAIJAN: MINISTER
Trend News Agency
July 18 2008
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan has accused international organizations of supporting
Armenians’ interests concerning fires set to the occupied lands of
Azerbaijan. "OSCE and NATO render financial support to Armenia and
make offers to stop fires instead of driving back the Armenian forces
together with Azerbaijan and taking ecological measures," Huseyn
Bagirov, minister of ecology and natural resources of Azerbaijan said
on 18 July.
The fires in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan have been intensified for
the last three years which inflicted great damage to Azerbaijan. The
Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has informed
international organizations of this fact.
"We should not accept the position of the international organizations,"
he said. "It means that the Armenians pollute the environment and at
the same time they want to receive financial aid from the international
organizations," minister said.
According to Bagirov, the fact that international organizations
attribute the fires to the dry climate is not acceptable. "These fires
aim at destroying dwelling houses and to lose traces of burglary. There
are large dry lands in Azerbaijan, but there are usually no fires
in these lands," minister said and added that the ongoing fires show
that the Armenians are not interested in continuing peace talks. "We
inform the states who urge us for peace, of these fires, but they
do not take any steps, and the rhetoric on peace by Armenia is just
senseless propaganda," he said.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in
1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan
lost the Nagorno-Karabakh, except of Shusha and Khojali, in December
1991. In 1992-93, Armenian Armed Forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and
Nagorno-Karabakh’s seven surrounding regions. In 1994, Azerbaijan
and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active
hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia,
France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful, but fruitless
negotiations.