MOSCOW SUPPORTS AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY: RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT’S COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

Trend News Agency
Nov 20 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 20 November / Trend News , corr. E.Tariverdiyeva/
Moscow supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Russia supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and will
continue to make efforts on settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, Alexei Ostrovsky, the chairman of the Russian Parliament’s
Committee on CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots, said to
Trend News in Baku on 20 November/

"Until Baku and Yerevan will not sit around the negotiation table
and come to a solution, which is acceptable for both sides, the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict process will continue,"
Ostrovsky said.

Armenia has occupied 20% of Azerbaijan’s lands including
Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding seven regions. The occupation began
in 1988. 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.