AzerNews, Azerbaijan
May 9 2013
Ukraine backs Minsk Group’s efforts on Karabakh conflict settlement
9 MAY 2013, 16:08 (GMT+05:00)
By Sara Rajabova
The Ukrainian Chairmanship lends its full support to efforts of the
OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in assisting the parties to find a peaceful
solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office,
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara has said at a meeting of the
UN Security Council.
Kozhara presented the priorities of Ukraine’s chairmanship of the OSCE
in the politico-military, economic and humanitarian spheres, as well
as in the environmental sphere and called the organization that he
heads “a reliable partner of the UN in maintaining international peace
and security”. He noted that the most important task on the agenda of
Ukraine is making progress in addressing the conflicts in the OSCE
area, the permanent representative of Azerbaijan to UN told Trend news
agency.
Touching upon the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, Kozhara stressed that
Ukraine’s chairmanship of the OSCE supports the efforts of the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs to resolve the conflict by peaceful means, and
said that on June 17-20, during a visit to the South Caucasus region,
he will call for a more active negotiations.
The sides cannot sit down at the negotiating table and work out a
solution to the conflict for several years, the OSCE chairman told
journalists at the UN headquarters, ITAR-TASS reported.
“We want to give an impetus to the negotiation process. We feel that
good dynamics are being observed on this issue,” he noted.
Kozhara also added that the EU Eastern Partnership program makes a
significant contribution to searching for a solution to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Azerbaijani representatve approved the serious attention paid by
Ukraine’s chairmanship to the conflict resolution in the OSCE area.
Noting that the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the adjacent territories
are under the occupation of Armenia, he emphasized that resolutions
822, 853, 874, adopted by the Security Council in 1993 in connection
with the conflict, recognize the use of military force against
Azerbaijan as a serious violation of international law.
The Azerbaijani representative noted with regret that until now the
basic requirements of the Security Councilhave not been implemented
and the efforts of more than twenty years of mediation within the
framework of OSCE have not yielded any results.
According to him, Armenia’s attempts to diminish the importance of the
Security Council resolutions and deliberately distort the rules and
principles of international law, as well as unrealistic aggressive
claims of Armenia, are a threat to the settlement of the conflict and
dangerous to the international and regional peace and security. In
addition, Armenia constantly carries out measures to consolidate the
occupation and to prevent the repatriation of more than 700,000
Azerbaijani IDPs.
After visiting the occupied territories in 2005 and 2010 on the
initiative of Azerbaijan, an OSCE fact-finding mission identified and
documented the facts of illegal activity, including the illegal
settlement of people in the occupied territories, changing
administrative boundaries and names of districts, the destruction of
cultural and religious heritage. However, the recommendations of these
missions have remained on paper.
Besides, the illegal activities such as resettlement of Syrian
Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories of
Azerbaijan and the organization of flights to these areas are a clear
example of colonization policy in the Azerbaijani lands.
Referring to these facts, the Azerbaijan representative to the OSCE
expressed hope that the OSCE chairperson-in-office will insist on an
immediate end to all actions which seriously hinder resolution of the
conflict through negotiations.
The Azerbaijan representative also stressed that in order to achieve
peace, security and stability, first, it is necessary to eliminate the
results of the illegal use of force by Armenia and hereby to secure
the repatriation of Azerbaijani IDPs and restoration of their
property.
The international law and the UN Security Council resolutions require
this exactly and it should not be presented as a subject of bargaining
in the process of conflict resolution, he added.
Azerbaijan will never make concessions on the issues of its
territorial integrity, freedom and the rights of citizens, he
emphasized.
In the meantime, the other members of the UN Security Council stressed
that the existence of conflicts in the OSCE area, the solution of
which was tightened, is unacceptable and noted the importance of their
settlement in accordance with the principles and norms of
international law, as well as on the basis of the UN Charter.
The Minsk Group, co-chaired by France, the United States and Russia,
has been mediating peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia since
the two South Caucasus republics signed a precarious cease-fire in
1994 following a lengthy war. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani
territory has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since then. Peace
talks have been largely fruitless so far.
From: A. Papazian
http://www.azernews.az/azerbaijan/53637.html