Azerbaijani community protests over European Football Cup in occupied Karabakh
FThe Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno Karabakh region expressed concern on December 24, over the holding of the European Football Cup 2019 next June by the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (ConIFA) in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.
In this regard, the Azerbaijani community sent a letter to the President of the Confederation of Peru, Anders Blind. The letter expresses deep concern and anger of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in connection with the holding of the 2019 European Cup in the occupied Karabakh.
It is noted that the military aggression of Armenia led to the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands - NagornoKarabakh and seven adjacent regions.
The letter states that Armenia carried out a policy of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, including Nagorno-Karabakh. This policy has led to the fact that over a million Azerbaijanis have become refugees and internally displaced persons.
It is also emphasized that this ConIFA tournament violates the norms and principles of international law and contradicts the official position of the world community and international organizations supporting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan. This provocation is not only a threat to peace and stability in the region, but also damages the negotiations between the parties, the letter says.
The letter reminds that there is only one club representing Azerbaijanis from the occupied territories of the country and this is Qarabagh FC.
"At the moment, the club holds its home games away from Agdam, occupied and completely destroyed by Armenian troops in Baku. Despite the fact that FC Qarabagh is forced to be and play far from Agdam, the club became known throughout the world after participating in group UEFA Champions League stages," the letter stated.
Moreover, this provocative action not only promotes the illegal regime but also stimulates the manifestation of separatism and irredentism in the region destroyed by the Armenian occupation.
"Conducting this tournament in a region that is in a war, ConIFA and you, its president, are seriously responsible for the lives of tournament participants, foreign journalists and other media representatives, sending them to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan," the letter concludes.
Earlier, Azerbaijan Football Federation Association strongly condemned the holding of the European Championship, which is expected to involve 12 teams in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
ConIFA World Football Cup is an international football tournament organized by the Confederation of Independent Football Associations for teams that are members of it. This tournament is also called “the world soccer championship among teams of unrecognized states”.
In fact, this tournament does not carry any official value. In Europe, there are two official structures that are authorized to hold or give the right to host world and continental championships. This is FIFA and UEFA. As of today, 206 officially recognized states are members of FIFA, which have the right to conduct and compete for participation in world and continental championships.
ConIFA is a structure that is not recognized by FIFA and UEFA.
Since 1992, Nagorno-Karabakh has been under the occupation of Armenian armed formations. Occupied Karabakh is not recognized by the international community, even by Armenia.
Russia has always supported the earliest possible resolution of the Karabakh conflict, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said during a briefing, answering the question whether a settlement of the Karabakh conflict is possible in 2019, taking into account positive statements from the Azerbaijani side.
She stressed that it is wrong to set a time frame, the spokesman added.
“If we talk about time, of course, we have always stood for rapid settlement of the conflict and all measures aimed at speedy settlement of this problem. But frankly speaking, I cannot say about specific timeframe,” she said.
Unfortunately, the conflict is protracted, Zakharova said, adding that everything that will depend on the Russian side will be done.
But everything that will depend on the Russian side both as a cochair, and in its national capacity, and as a country that has a common past with Azerbaijan and Armenia, a common history, will be done, she concluded.
Russia has always played a very active role in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and along with the U.S. and France is a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, which spearheads the OSCE’s efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are underway within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, established in 1992. Azerbaijan insists on maintaining its territorial integrity, while Armenia continues keeping under the occupation the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions, thus rejecting to implement four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from these territory.
Unfortunately, last year has not seen any significant progress on the conflict settlement. Basically, there were some declarations of intent, statements that remain in words not turning into action due to Armenia's destructive position.
From the geopolitical point of view, Armenia's position is wrong for its national interests. Normalizing relations with Azerbaijan, which is a leading country in the region, will indeed benefit the national interests of Armenia and its devastated economy. Yerevan knows that the main reason for this situation is their occupying policy. The leadership of Armenia that chose this path today leads its people to the abyss.
The best option for Armenia is to negotiate peace with Azerbaijan and abandon the occupation policy.