MFA: Armenia must understand that occupation of Azerbaijani territories not solution to conflict
Armenia must finally understand that the military occupation of the Azerbaijani territories is not a solution to the conflict and will never produce a political outcome desired by Armenia, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s Spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend on February 14.
Armenia must finally understand that the military occupation of the Azerbaijani territories is not a solution to the conflict and will never produce a political outcome desired by Armenia, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s Spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend on February 14.
He commented on the continuing occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands and Armenian aggressive separatism. Hajiyev noted that this year marks the 30 years of Armenian separatism that started in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in the late 1980s.
“As is known, in the beginning of 1988, Armenia overtly laid claim to the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) of Azerbaijan and actively supported aggressive separatism,” the spokesman said. “Those claims were preceded by attacks on the Azerbaijanis living both in Nagorno-Karabakh and in Armenia, resulting in civilian casualties and a flood of Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons.”
Thus, more than 200,000 Azerbaijanis were forcefully expelled from Armenia at the end of 1980s. In addition, more than 40,000 indigenous Azerbaijanis of Nagorno-Karabakh were subjected to ethnic cleansing and terror attacks, Hajiyev stressed.
“On December 1, 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR adopted a resolution calling for the unification with NagornoKarabakh. However, on January 10, 1990, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution on the nonconformity of the acts of Armenian SSR Supreme Soviet with the USSR Constitution, and the proposed unification of Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh without the consent of Azerbaijan was declared illegal,” the spokesman said.
On August 30, 1991, the Azerbaijan SSR adopted the Declaration on restoration of state independence of Azerbaijan and this was officially confirmed on October 18, 1991 and December 29, 1991.
Thus, the unlawfulness of attempted unilateral secession of Nagorno-Karabakh without Azerbaijan’s consent was confirmed at the highest constitutional level within the Soviet legal system, Hajiyev noted.
At the end of 1991 and the beginning of 1992, when the USSR ceased to exist and both Armenia and Azerbaijan attained independence, armed hostilities and attacks against populated areas within Azerbaijan intensified and escalated into a full-fledged inter-state war. As a result of the war unleashed by Armenia against Azerbaijan, a significant part of Azerbaijan’s territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region, seven adjacent regions and some exclaves were occupied by Armenia, the spokesman mentioned.
“The fact that NagornoKarabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan, was reaffirmed in the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, and this has been repeatedly stated at the international level,” Hajiyev noted.
The spokesman highlighted that the resolutions of the Security Council, recognizing that NagornoKarabakh constitutes a part of Azerbaijan and reaffirming the inviolability of international borders and the inadmissibility of the use of force for the acquisition of territory, were adopted after the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh had unilaterally declared their “independence.” Thus, the Security Council made it absolutely clear that the unilateral declaration of independence in a given situation is invalid.
Hajiyev noted that the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict is possible only within the internationally recognized borders, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
“Azerbaijan once again demands that Armenia, instead of wasting time for searching for imaginary historical arguments to justify its policy of annexation and try to mislead the international community, cease its policy of occupation and ethnic cleansing and engage constructively in the conflict settlement process, comply with its international obligations and withdraw its troops from the territories of Azerbaijan” the spokesman said.
He mentioned that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has never been and will never be a subject of negotiations. Azerbaijan remains committed to the conflict settlement process based on this understanding.