OSCE Minsk Group fails to carry out its mission

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

The recent fraudulent "elections" in Nagorno-Karabakh show just how much Armenia is not interested in the conflict resolution, said an official in Azerbaijan.

In her interview with AzerNews, Ganira Pashayeva, a member of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, assessed the "polls" as the "next game" of the Yerevan-backed puppet regime in Azerbaijan's occupied lands. She noted that it "revealed the real face of Armenia's rulers".

"Holding elections in Azerbaijani lands is illegal and baseless. It proved that Yerevan is not interested in seeking any peaceful end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," she said.

Pashayeva, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, criticized severely the OSCE Minsk Group approach towards those "elections".

"We accuse and blame the OSCE Minsk Group for not showing a strict reaction and exerting severe pressure on the Armenian side in view of the co-called elections. The group has failed to carry out its mission," she noted.

Having Yerevan's full political and financial backing, the separatist regime in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region arranged a trump up "parliamentary elections" on May 3.

Amid the ongoing conflict with Azerbaijan, the move was harshly criticized by Baku and the international community as "illegal" and "provocative" enough to impede peace efforts directed at the conflict's soonest resolution. According to recent reports in Armenian media, the puppet regime has started a "mandate distribution".

"The Nagorno-Karabakh region belongs to Azerbaijan. Simultaneously with the region's international recognition as part of Azerbaijan's territory, the regime established there is not recognized by any country in the world. And subsequently the illegal regime's fabricated "elections" and its fallacious "mandate share" are but nonsense," Pashayeva said.

Azerbaijan's state policy excludes any concession in regard to its occupied territories. The irreversible approach of Baku towards the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions demands the soonest withdrawal of all Armenian troops and subsequent restoration of peace. Peace in its own territory and also in the region stands high on Azerbaijan rulers' addresses and statements.

"As a PACE and Euronest Parliamentary Assembly attendee I always raise Azerbaijan's position in the light of our occupied territories and territorial immunity. Armenians' vandalism and ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijan are regularly brought to the world's attention. Azerbaijan will not allow its occupied lands to be used for provocative purposes similar to that of "elections," Pashayeva said.

She added that President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly underlined that no inch of the Azerbaijani lands will remain under Armenia's occupation. "We all adhere to our president's policy, and the occupied lands will absolutely be liberated," Pashayeva concluded.

Azerbaijan's landlocked mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh is the subject of an unresolved conflict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan. Close to the Soviet Union's collapse, in 1988, Azerbaijani troops and Armenian separatists engaged in a bloody war that ended in the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territories - Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. Negotiations have so far failed to produce a permanent peace agreement mainly due to Armenia's persistent avoidance to exert its best efforts towards achieving peace.