Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2
By Matanat Nasibova – Trend:
Yerevan's contradictory statements on the Karabakh conflict's settlement do not give grounds to say that the meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia will be easy and will solve many issues, Azerbaijani political scientist, Professor of the West Caspian University Fikret Sadikhov told Trend, commenting on the upcoming meeting of the FMs on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
The government of Armenia aims at bringing Karabakh separatists to the negotiation process, and at the same time Yerevan is talking about peace and making unclear statements about resolution of the conflict, the political scientist said.
"In addition, we should not forget that this is not a special meeting organized within the Minsk Group – it is held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, where many meetings, unfortunately, are of formal nature very often. But I think that the meeting with the Armenian foreign minister gives us another opportunity to deliver to the Armenian side our principled and clear position based on the norms and principles of international law to resolve the long-term conflict. The Armenian side should understand that the Armenian soldier has nothing to do in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. And there can be no agreement while Armenian servicemen are in the territory of Azerbaijan. I think our minister will deliver this position of the Azerbaijani side at the professional level so that Yerevan has a full and final understanding of what the Azerbaijani side demands," he said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.