“Talks will be held in Baku, and there can be a meeting of presidents. There is a proposal from the French side, we are not against it. What’s important is to achieve progress in the talks. We are against the talks for the sake of talks,” said Mammadyarov.
The substantive talks on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was launched in St. Petersburg, the FM said, noting that there is a document on which the work is underway.
“If we work in this respect, we can achieve peace. Russia is a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, and a neighboring country close to us. Stability in the South Caucasus is important for Russia. We buy weapons either Russia or other countries. Our lands are under occupation, and ethnic cleansing was committed by Armenia against our people,” said Mammadyarov.
The FM praised the OSCE efforts to ensure the stability in the South Caucasus.
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 CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) 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, the 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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