Four Turkish citizens were put on an international wanted list for illegally visiting the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov told reporters on Saturday, APA reported.
Garalov noted that the Prosecutor General’s Office has already filed a criminal case against these persons who showed disrespect to Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
“The actions of these persons, known for their pro-Armenian position, do not reflect Turkey’s official stance,” he said. They expressed support for PKK terrorist organization and propagated the establishment of an independent Kurdish state.”
Persons who violate the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan will be brought to criminal responsibility, the prosecutor general stressed.
Without documents and consent from relevant executive authorities, Turkish citizens Ufuk Uras (former MP), Ali Bayramoglu, Said Cekinoglu and Erol Katircioglu (writer) crossed the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan avoiding checkpoints, that is, deliberately traveled from territory of Armenia and illegally arrived in occupied Khankendi and other settlements on September 22. They voiced pro-Armenian views against Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.
A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.
The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.
Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.
Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.
Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.