The State Senate and House of Representatives of Arizona adopted a resolution supporting Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity and sovereignty on January 30.

The news was announced by Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los-Angeles.

The resolution notes that the United States and Arizona support Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity and sovereignty, and the international community does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent entity.

It said the OSCE Minsk Group is tasked with facilitating negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan toward a political settlement of the conflict based on the principles and norms of international law, the decisions and documents adopted by the OSCE, and the applicable UN Security Council resolutions.
The resolution stressed that the UN Security Council in its four resolutions, and the international community including the NATO, the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Non-Aligned Movement have reaffirmed their support for Azerbaijan`s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict will bring relief to the hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani refugees who have been displaced because of the conflict, the document says.

The legislators expressed their support for "the reinvigoration of the U.S. efforts aimed at a swift and just political settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan`s internationally recognized territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council`s four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.
Consul General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles Nasimi Aghayev attended the plenary sessions of both chambers during the adoption of the resolution. Before the adoption, the resolution authors introduced the Consul General to the legislators and stressed the importance of Azerbaijan for the United States. Then, the resolution was unanimously adopted by both houses of the Legislature.

Speaking about Azerbaijan`s development since independence, the document also noted that over the past decades, Azerbaijan has succeeded in rebuilding its economy, tripling its gross domestic product (GDP), and becoming a rapidly developing member of the global economy.

"Accounting for 80 percent of the GDP of the South Caucasus region, Azerbaijan is the United States` biggest trade partner in the South Caucasus," the resolution said.

Calling Azerbaijan a strategic partner of the U.S. in the strategically important South Caucasus region, the resolution stressed that the U.S. and Azerbaijan have expanded their partnership and developed multifaceted cooperation on issues ranging from energy security to the fight against international terrorism, efforts against drug and human trafficking, and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction over the past twenty years.
The resolution also said that Azerbaijan initiated a number of strategically important trans-regional energy and transportation projects like the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which contribute to the prosperity of both Azerbaijan and some of its regional allies, including Turkey and Georgia.

This is the Arizona State Legislature`s second resolution on Azerbaijan. The first resolution was adopted in May 2013 and covered the strategic partnership between the U.S. and Azerbaijan.

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