AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
May 21 2010

Baku appeals to UN over separatist vote

21-05-2010 05:23:36
Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the United Nations has sent a letter to
the UN General Assembly condemning the so-called "parliament
elections" planned on Sunday by the Armenia-backed separatist regime
in Azerbaijan’s occupied Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh region, according to
the UN Information Center.
Expressing concern over the planned vote, Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev
noted that Azerbaijan has repeatedly stated that despite its efforts
aiming to resolve the long-standing conflict in line with
international law, Armenia’s policy of occupation and the illegal
actions being taken in the occupied territories indicate Yerevan’s
persistent attempts to annex the occupied land.
`Any vote conducted in the backdrop of the ongoing aggression and
ethnic cleansing carried out in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories,
cannot be considered legitimate and harms the previous legal status of
these territories, which are deemed as Azerbaijan’s territories under
international law,’ the letter says.
Mehdiyev also wrote that the world community has unequivocally
denounced all `elections’ held so far in Upper Garabagh. Therefore,
Azerbaijan is expecting the UN and its members to condemn these
illegal actions by Armenia again.
`This lawlessness targeting Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial
integrity jeopardizes the political efforts aimed at settling the
conflict and causes a disruption of stability in the South Caucasus
region.’
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.*