Armenia actively settling occupied Azeri territories – minister
Trend news agency
7 Dec 04
Baku, 7 December: In an effort to invigorate the results of its
military aggression, Armenia, which has occupied the Nagornyy Karabakh
region and adjacent districts of Azerbaijan, is actively settling the
occupied territories, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
said in his remarks at the 12th meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers
Council in Sofia, the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry
has told Trend.
The minister said this means a flagrant violation of international
humanitarian law, namely, the 1949 Geneva Convention. Mammadyarov added
that Azerbaijan adheres to a negotiated solution to the conflict on
the basis of international legal norms and principles, four UN Security
Council resolutions and OSCE documents. It was stressed that Azerbaijan
is ready to restore relations with Armenia, but before that can happen
Armenia must start acting not on the basis of the position it has
secured by means of force and the ideology of territorial claims,
but on the basis of principles of international law and democracy.
Giving a positive assessment to the Prague meetings, Mammadyarov
expressed his concern over the illegal activities carried out on the
occupied territories, which damage the peace process, and called on
the OSCE to contribute to the conflict settlement.
[Passage to end omitted: Mammadyarov had a number of other meetings
in Sofia]