Associated Press makes correction to story on Nagorno-Karabakh - Azerbaijani MFA

  19 May 2016    Read: 2142
Associated Press makes correction to story on Nagorno-Karabakh - Azerbaijani MFA
The Associated Press’s Vienna bureau made correction to the story on Nagorno Karabakh and republished it under title of “Correction: Armenia-Azerbaijan story”, after receiving a letter of protest of the Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry.

It says that in a story May 17 about the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, The Associated Press incorrectly reported the size of Nagorno-Karabakh. The region is 4,400 square kilometers (1,700 square miles), not 12,000 square kilometers (4,400 square miles).

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry appealed to the Associated Press that the word “dispute” used in the story regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict distorts the true nature of the conflict and runs contrary to the terminology applied in connection with the conflict. This word was removed from the title of the story.

The territory of the other adjacent districts of Nagorno Karabakh is 12,600 square kilometers. The territory of the occupied Azerbaijani territories overall is 17,000 square kilometers, which makes up 20 percent of our country’s territory.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.

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