“No one wants a new war. The declaration of a ceasefire is the right choice,” the ambassador said.

However, the problem of occupation of Azerbaijan’s lands still remains unresolved, Coskun added. “Of course, the ceasefire is the best way for preventing the war, but it does not solve the problem of [occupation of Azerbaijani lands],” he noted.

The problem should be solved within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and then there will be no need for a ceasefire, according to the ambassador.

“If the Azerbaijani lands are liberated, then the people of both countries will be able to live peacefully within their internationally recognized borders,” Coskun stressed. “Our main work is to ensure the welfare and unity of the region and our peoples and achieve the development of trade cooperation”.

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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