COMMUNITY LEADER: ORDINARY ARMENIANS FROM NAGORNO-KARABAKH WANT TO LIVE IN AZERBAIJAN

Trend
March 4 2010
Azerbaijan

Ordinary Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh want to live in Azerbaijan,
Azerbaijani Community in Nagorno-Karabakh Chief Bayram Safarov told
Trend News today.

They experience great financial difficulties. Only 3-5 percent
live well, he said. The rest suffer. The population knows that
Nagorno-Karabakh is an Azerbaijani territory and sooner or later
these lands will be returned to their owner.

"I believe that 2010 will be a turning point in the resolution of
the Nagorno-Karabakh problem," he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the
occupied territories.

Foreign nationals, including Armenian citizens, who travel to
Nagorno-Karabakh without Azerbaijan’s permission, violate the
country’s state border and the relevant actions must be taken toward
those individuals.