Elmar Mammadyarov: main problem in Nagorno-Karabakh settlement is presence of Armenian Armed Forces in occupied territories (EXCLUSIVE)

The biggest problem in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the illegal presence of Armenian troops in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated in an exclusive interview with Vestnik Kavkaza today on the sidelines of the meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers in Moscow.

Speaking about the Nagorno-Karabakh issue at the meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers, Elmar Mammadyarov highly appreciated the attention of the Commonwealth member states to this issue, calling it important for Azerbaijan, as the republic is the most interested party in a breakthrough in the peace negotiations.

"Hostilities have already led to numerous deaths among the military and civilians – and we are particularly concerned over the deaths of peaceful citizens, because it's mostly our civilians on the frontline. On the other hand, the Azerbaijani population expelled from the occupied territories, these territories were ethnically cleansed. And if there are civilians, these are families of Armenian servicemen, as far as I know," the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister noted.

In this regard, Azerbaijan certainly welcomes the idea of ​​the accelerated development of the negotiation process initiated by the Russian side. "Frankly speaking, there has been almost no negotiating process over the past five years. There were intensive negotiations when Dmitry Medvedev was the Russian president, and then, unfortunately, the process was frozen. Under the present circumstances, I think the sooner there will be some progress in the negotiations, the better. Everyone understands that the existing status quo is unacceptable. First of all, Armenia should understand that it must withdraw its troops, or how can we talk about overcoming the escalation?" Elmar Mammadyarov stressed.

"We do not reject the updated Madrid principles. Sergey Lavrov expressed his vision of a phased approach on the basis of the Madrid principles last summer, and I can tell you that his proposals were quite reasonable. They were also sent in written form, so we have formally responded. We expected that there would be progress in January, but unfortunately the Armenian side rejected the proposals at the last Lavrov-Mammadyarov-Nalbandian meetings. Yesterday we again discussed Lavrov's proposal in detail," the head of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said, adding that the document, based on six-point applications of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk group, is currently under discussion at the presidential level.

Recall, on the night of April 2 all frontier positions of Azerbaijan were exposed to heavy fire from large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and guns. In addition, Azerbaijani settlements near the front line, densely populated by civilians, were shelled.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US, are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.