AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
Feb 25 2010
Aliyev rules out `second Armenian state’
25-02-2010 05:45:58
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Tuesday his country will
never allow the establishment in its territories of `a second state’
by Armenians, who have been occupying part of Azerbaijan’s
internationally-recognized territory for over a decade.
President Aliyev noted, further, that the world community, and OSCE
mediators brokering peace talks in particular, are offering a conflict
settlement complying with the territorial integrity principle.
`I am confident that this approach will help us to swiftly resolve
the problem, because all norms of international law are on our side,’
Aliyev told the opening of a building constructed for those disabled
during the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh war with Armenia and war victim
families in the Lokbatan settlement, 15 km away from Baku.
`Upper Garabagh is an integral part of Azerbaijan,’ he said,
reiterating that the Azerbaijani region will never be an independent
state.
`The whole world knows this. And the sooner Armenia realizes this
truth, the sooner the problem will find its solution. Once it has been
resolved, peace in the region could be fully restored, as the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict is the biggest problem facing the region.
Without having resolved it, no other problem can find its solution.’
The Garabagh conflict began in 1988 on Armenian territorial claims.
Since the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent
of Azerbaijan including the Upper Garabagh region and its seven
surrounding districts, despite four standing UN resolutions on
unconditional pullout of Armenian troops and condemnation by a number
of other international organizations.*