AZERBAIJAN NEEDS POLITICAL SETTLEMENT OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT, MAINTAINING TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF COUNTRY: FOREIGN MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN
Trend
Dec 4 2008
Azerbaijan
Finland, Helsinki, 4 Dec/corr. Trend News I.Gustanskaya/ Azerbaijan
needs the political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
taking into consideration the interests of all sides and protection of
the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, Foreign
Minister of Azerbaijan, said, giving a speech at the summit of the
Foreign Ministers of the OSCE member countries in Helsinki on 4 Dec.
The agreement signed in Moscow on 2 Nov is a good basis for settling
the conflict, but the resolution on ceasefire is insufficient, the
Foreign Minister said.
"The conflict needs to be politically resolved taking into
consideration the interests of all sides," said Mammadyarov. The
Minister said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is one of the sources
of instability and therefore, the OSCE needs to make maximum efforts
to solve it.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries appeared in 1988
due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenia has
occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani lands including the Nagorno-Karabakh
region and its seven surrounding districts. Since 1992 to the present
time, these territories have been under Armenian occupation. In 1994,
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire agreement at which time
the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
(Russia, France and USA) are holding peaceful negotiations.