AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
Jan 8 2010
Azerbaijan voices concern to UN chief over Armenia
08-01-2010 05:05:21
Azerbaijan’s representation to the United Nations has sent a message
to the organization’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, expressing
concern over the fact Armenia continues to defy its international
commitments regarding the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict.
`Armenia’s position represents a danger of misleading the
international community about the real nature of the problem,’ the
message says.
`The non-constructive position of the Armenian leaders poses a serious
threat to resolving the dispute by political means,’ it adds.
The message highlights the history of the Garabagh conflict, saying
`Armenians launched attacks against Azerbaijanis as early as 1987 in
Khankandi [the center of the self-proclaimed Upper Garabagh republic],
which caused the flow of Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs’.
`During the Soviet era Armenia extended its territory from 10,000 to
29,000 square meters at the cost of Azerbaijan’s lands.’
`The Armenian government must realize that having cleansed its
territory from all non-Armenians it is now the only mono-ethnic
country across the world. Armenia’s political life is dominated by
racial discrimination,’ the letter underlines. It also calls on
international organizations, in particular, the UN, to take `more
serious measures’ against Yerevan.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since a brutal war
in the 1990s that claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about one
million Azerbaijanis from their homes. Armenia continues to occupy
Upper Garabagh and seven adjacent Azerbaijani districts in defiance of
international law. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but the
OSCE-brokered peace talks have been fruitless so far. Azerbaijan has
never ruled out military action to liberate its land and has spent
billions on dollars on building up its military.*