Yerevan must understand that occupation of Azerbaijani lands will never produce desired political outcome, the spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev said, commenting on continuation of occupation of Azerbaijan’s lands and Armenian aggressive separatism.
He recalled that this year marks the 30 years of Armenian aggressive separatism started in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in late 80s of the last century.
"As is well known, since the beginning of 1988, Armenia overtly laid claim to and engaged in active support of aggressive separatism in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) of Azerbaijan. Those claims were preceded by the attacks on the Azerbaijanis both in Nagorno-Karabakh and in Armenia, resulting in civilian casualties and a flood of Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons. Thus, at the end of 1980s, more than 200,000 Azerbaijanis were forcefully expelled from Armenia. More than 40.000 indigenous Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh were also subject of ethnic cleansing and brutal terror attacks," Hajiyev stressed.
"On 1 December 1989, the Supreme Soviet of Armenia adopted a resolution calling for the reunification of the Armenian SSR with Nagorno Karabakh. However, on 10 January 1990, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution on the “Nonconformity With the USSR Constitution of the Acts on Nagorny Karabakh Adopted by the Armenian SSR Supreme Soviet on 1 December 1989 and 9 January 1990”, declaring the illegality of the proposed unification of Armenia with Nagorny Karabakh without the consent of the Azerbaijan. On 30 August 1991, the Azerbaijan SSR adopted a Declaration on the restoration of state independence of Azerbaijan and on 18 October 1991 and 29 December 1991, this was officially confirmed," the spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said.
The spokesman stressed that the unlawfulness within the Soviet legal system of attempted unilateral secession of Nagorno-Karabakh without Azerbaijan’s consent was confirmed at the highest constitutional level.
Azerbaijan did not so consent, so that the definition of the territory of Azerbaijan as it proceeded to independence and in the light of the applicable law clearly included Nagorno-Karabakh," he noted.
"Armenia must finally understand that the military occupation of the territory of Azerbaijan is not a solution and will never produce a political outcome desired by Armenia. The resolution of the conflict is possible only on the basis of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders," Hajiyev said.
"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," he added.
