BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept.4
Trend:
Azerbaijani Defense Minister, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov, who is on a working visit to Russia, has attended a regular meeting of the Defense Ministers of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization held on September 4, Trend reports.
Hasanov informed the meeting participants in his speech that the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been going on for many years, as a result of which over a million Azerbaijanis have become refugees and displaced persons.
The minister stressed that the fact of the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan by a CIS member state contradicts the norms and principles of international law, including that of CIS.
He pointed out that the large-scale provocation committed by Armenia in the direction of the Tovuz district of the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border in July of this year has posed a threat to the regional security.
Hasanov also stated that official Yerevan seeks to damage relations between Azerbaijan and the CIS member states.
At the end of the meeting, a joint statement was signed in connection with the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War and the end of World War II.
The defense ministers who signed the statement, expressing their attitude on several issues, reaffirmed their adherence to the goals and principles of the UN, the accepted norms of international law, in particular, the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.