The Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been going on for more than two decades, but Moscow's mediation efforts to resolve it have not yet led to any significant results. Once, in the early 1990s, when both countries became members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (then CSCE), there was hope for the active participation of international organizations in the negotiating process. However, the OSCE Minsk Group (Russia, France, USA) has so far made no significant progress in resolving the conflict.
Recently, Baku presented to the OSCE countries its position on Nagorno-Karabakh with an announcement by President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Trend reports with reference to a report obtained from diplomatic sources in Vienna.
The essence of the Azerbaijani position is as follows:
For more than 20 years, Nagorno-Karabakh and seven other districts internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan have been under Armenian occupation. The UN Security Council adopted four resolutions demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories. However, they are not enforced. One million Azerbaijanis have become victims of this aggression, we have been subjected to a policy of ethnic cleansing by Armenia, and were in the position of internally displaced persons and refugees. An early settlement of the conflict based on international law and the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council would benefit all the peoples of the South Caucasus region.
Baku hopes that the international community will put pressure on the aggressor for its withdrawal from Azerbaijani lands, and immediately after the liberation of the occupied territories can begin the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has the same value as the territorial integrity of any other country, and the conflict should be resolved on that basis.
Baku also urged not to forget about the roots of the conflict. The supported Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh launched aggression against Azerbaijan. The first victims of this conflict were the Azerbaijanis. This aggression led to the policy of ethnic cleansing, the Khojaly genocide and the occupation of 20 percent of our territories. This occupation cannot be justified, as is very clear, and just look at the map to see that a significant portion of Azerbaijan is under Armenian occupation. They drove out all the Azerbaijanis, violated their human rights, destroyed historic religious monuments. This is noted in the report of two OSCE missions in the region.
It is necessary to distinguish between the victim and the aggressor. The aggressor should be brought to justice. Occupation, aggression, nothing can be justified. The sooner the Armenian leadership is aware of this reality, the better it will be for them, as by continuing to occupy the land Armenia deprives itself of regional cooperation with Azerbaijan and other neighboring countries, resulting in terrible poverty in Armenia. During Sargsyan's rule more than 50 percent of Armenia's population lives below the poverty line. Without normalization of relations with its neighbors it is impossible to predict the future of Armenia.
Armenia is already in a deep political, moral, psychological and financial crisis. For the development of the country there are no resources, the economy has collapsed, the industry has collapsed, people are leaving the country. "If it goes on, the future of Armenia will disappear from the world map. If this happens, the originator will only be the criminal dictatorship,’’ Azerbaijan believes.
The report also shows the position of the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, who gave the official interpretation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights for ‘Chiragov and others against Armenia' and 'Sargsyan against Azerbaijan'. "The court's decision is significant in several respects. First, the European Court of Human Rights in an effective form put an end to the Armenian denial of its responsibility for the illegal occupation of the Azerbaijani territories and military presence in these areas ... According to the definition adopted by consensus in 1974 by the UN General Assembly, invasion and attack by one state on the territory of another state, or even a temporary military aggression as a result of invasion and attack, as well as the bombing of one state by another state, or the use by one state of a weapon against the territory of another state are visual manifestations of aggression," Mammadyarov reminds.
According to him, the court reaffirmed the right of forced refugees to return to their homes or places of habitual residence. Azerbaijan does not consider the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces and the return of internally displaced persons as a ‘compromise’. The behavior of the Armenian side shows who obstructed the implementation of the fundamental human rights of internally displaced persons, on the protection of which is the Court verdict, Baku believes.
