Azerbaijan has agreed to the gradual withdrawal of Armenian forces from Azerbaijani regions around Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev said on Wednesday, AzerTag reports.
Aliyev said that Armenian troops will leave 5 regions immediately, and two more – Kialbadjirskiy and Lachinskiy - in 5 years or so.
Aliyev said that Baku does not plan an ethnic cleansing policy in Nagorno-Karabakh. The administrative border of Nagorno-Karabakh will have peacekeepers. They will stay until all sides take responsibility for security. The transitional status of Nagorno-Karabakh is under discussion. It will not affect the territorial unity of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The president said that he will not allow the process to be hindered. He said that the terrorist attacks in the Armenian parliament at the end of 1990s created problems of conflict settlement. If the settlement process goes according to plan, Azerbaijani citizens will be able to return to the regions around Nagorno-Karabakh, he said.
