TODAY.AZ / Politics

EU double standards on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict still visible

28 March 2015 [13:21] - TODAY.AZ
/AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Diplomats dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are not aware of the history and root of the problem, an Azerbaijani scientist believes.

Ineffective activity of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Minsk group was at the forefront of the speech delivered by Azerbaijani scientist, professor at the department of international law of the National Aviation University of Ukraine, PhD Arif Guliyev.

Addressing the 3rd International Youth Forum on the Challenges of Globalization and Multilateral Diplomacy in Kiev, professor Guliyev criticized the 20-year long double standards in view of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Guliyev believes that the incumbent co-chairs of the Minsk Group are not the top officials of the relevant foreign circles.

"The countries which they represent are the most influential states in the world. They had to say their decisive words in accordance with international legal norms, UN Security Council's, General Assembly`s resolutions, as well as documents adopted by the OSCE and PACE long ago," he said.

The OSCE Minsk Group is a mediator organization involved in promoting efforts to solve peacefully the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. James Warlick (USA), Igor Popov (Russia) and Pierre Andrieu (France) are the co-chairs of the group, who still fail to achieve a breakthrough in the conflict's settlement notwithstanding over 20 years of mediation.

Noting Azerbaijan's continuous commitment to all international norms based on resolutions and decisions adopted by international organizations, Guliyev slammed the European Union for the double standards.

"The double standards displayed by the EU are visible even now despite 25 years pass since the conflict's beginning," he noted.

"The European Union has never offered its assistance to Azerbaijan in the light of restoring the destroyed infrastructure in the occupied territories," Guliyev added.

He said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pursued a policy on liberation of Azerbaijani territories as part of Azerbaijan's legal right.

"Although, Azerbaijan undertook a commitment to use only peaceful means to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict when it joined the Council of Europe, the country still reserves the right to liberate the Armenia-occupied lands through war as far as the negotiations supported by the Minsk group yield no results," Guliyev noted.

The OSCE Minsk Group's failure to achieve any tangible result in regards to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict so far has frustrated Baku. Although the mediation group is brokering peace talks in between Azerbaijan and Armenia, critics have raised questions as to the efficiency of such talks. Periodical visits of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to the region have already lost their substance, claimed Azerbaijani officials.

Dissatisfied with the OSCE mediation effort so far, Baku even called for Turkey and Germany to join the group in view of promoting a breakthrough and finalize the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia and Azerbaijan remain locked in a bitter territorial dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Armenia-backed separatists seized from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the early 1990s.

Azerbaijan's internationally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh territory was turned into a battlefield and zone of aggravated tensions after Armenia sent its troops to occupy Azerbaijan's lands. As a result, 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory stands under military occupation. For the past two decades, and despite calls from the international community, Armenia has refused to withdraw its troops and retreat within its national borders.
URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/139409.html

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