ILHAM ALIYEV: SOLUTION TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT MUST BE BASED ONLY ON PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
Today
Dec 1 2010
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is partcipating in 7th OSCE summit
in Astana. The President has delivered a speech at the summit today.
The ongoing armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues
to represent a major threat to international and regional peace and
stability, Aliyev stated to the OSCE Summit in Astana.
“As a result of the policy of ethnic cleansing conducted by Armenia
against Azerbaijanis, 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan is under
occupation. One million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally
displaced persons on their own land. Armenia continues to occupy not
only Nagorno-Karabakh, but also seven other regions of Azerbaijan,”
the President said.
According to President Aliyev, Armenia destroyed Azerbaijani
cities and villages, homes and sacred place, graves of ancestries
and mosques. “They committed war crimes, genocide in Khojaly, where
hundreds of civilians were killed by Armenian armed forces only because
they were Azerbaijanis. Among the innocent victims of Khojali more
than 100 were children,” Aliyev stressed.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a historic part of Azerbaijan. It is
internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan, Aliyev said.
“Today Armenia continues to use force for sustaining the control
over the occupied territories and to hinder the return of the IDPs
to their homes,” Aliyev underscored. “But nevertheless Azerbaijan
remains committed to the peaceful negotiations and still hopes that
they will bring results.”
According to the Azerbaijani president, solution to the conflict
must be based only on the respect to the norms and principles of
international law, implementation of four Security Council resolution,
decisions of OSCE, and resolutions of European Parliament, the Council
of Europe, and other international organizations.
“But Armenia instead of negotiating, and finding a durable solution to
the conflict as soon as possible, gives preference to escalation with
unpredictable consequences. Armenia permanently violates the ceasefire
regime, conducts military training in the occupied territories, tries
to rename the historical names of our occupied cities and villages,”
Aliyev said.
According to Azerbaijani leader, Armenia illegally settles civilians in
the occupied territories, tries to make the situation irreversible,
and peace process meaningless. “Illegal activity by Armenia on
the occupied territories was reflected in the report of the OSCE
fact-finding mission to the region in 2005.”
“The way how Armenia behaves during the negotiation process leads us
to the conclusion that Armenia does not want peace, does not want to
liberate the occupied territories but want to keep the status-quo
as long as they can and make negotiation process endless,” Aliyev
pointed out.
OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992, negotiations are held for almost
20 years but without any results, Aliyev added.
“Azerbaijan values the proposals that the Minsk group co-chairing
countries have elaborated over past 6 years within the Prague process.
We are ready to continue negotiations and to finalize them as soon
as possible and to achieve the solution which will be based on the
norms and principles of the international law within the framework
of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev stressed.
President Aliyev also expressed his gratitude to President Nursultan
Nazarbayev and Kazakh friend for excellent organization of this summit,
for warm hospitality and of the chairing of OSCE in surround the year.
From: A. Papazian