Paris's statement on starting work on great peace deal is progress

/AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani foreign policy head said though no tangible results were achieved during the recent meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Paris, French President Francois Hollande's statement saying it is time to start working over a great peace agreement is a progress.

Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov made the remark at a briefing on November 3 speaking about the meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

The two presidents held a meeting on October 27 with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen to discuss the settlement process of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. They held a face to face meeting, which was followed by another joint meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. Afterwards, a joint meeting attended by President Hollande, President Aliyev, President Sargsyan and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen took place.

Mammadyarov also stressed that it is necessary to continue working over the issues that have not yet been agreed yet.

He said that the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting will take place in Basel (Switzerland) in early December. A meeting of foreign ministers of the two sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is also expected to be held with OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen.

Mammadyarov underlined that an important condition for the talks is the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories. He said the mediators have agreed on this issue.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.