BAKU: Karabakh veterans appeal to int’l organizations

Baku Sun, Azerbaijan
July 13 2005

Karabakh veterans appeal to int’l organizations

BAKU – The Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO) has appealed to
international organizations on the occasion of the upcoming visit to
the region by OSCE Minsk group co-chairs this month.The notorious
group has been commissioned by the OSCE to mediate a peaceful
solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani ethnic conflict over Karabakh.
KLO unites Azeri veterans of the 1991-1994 Karabakh war, which left
one fifth of Azerbaijan’s areas occupied by Armenian forces, with
30,000 people dead and almost a million Azeris fleeing from their
homeland.

`The Minsk group doesn’t work efficiently (towards the resolution of
the Karabakh conflict) and seeks to conceal aggressive actions
towards Azerbaijan by Armenia,’ the Organization said in an appeal,
also addressed to the ambassadors of France, Russia and the United
States – the countries co-chairing the Minsk group.

The international community recognizes Karabakh as territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan.However, the KLO chairman, Akif Naghi, who
holds an academic degree in history, noted that the troubleshooters’
earlier visit to Karabakh from Armenia, bypassing Azerbaijan, had
caused a protest with the Azerbaijani public, as `this action had
been directed against the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and
been in line with the interests of Armenia.’

Despite the occupation of almost 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s
territory, the international community – including the Council of
Europe and European Union – refuses to recognize Armenia as an
aggressor country.

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