Azerbaijan's OSCE Permanent Mission: Military occupation should be eliminated for non-use of force

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

Non-implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions by Armenia remains an open challenge to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict settlement process and a serious threat to international and regional peace and security, reads a statement issued by the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the OSCE.

The mission further stressed that those who talk about non-use of force in the context of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, first of all must eliminate the factor of military occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

In its resolutions, the UNSC condemned the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan, reaffirmed the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, with the Nagorno-Karabakh region as part of it. The Council specifically reaffirmed the principle of inviolability of international borders and demanded the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying Armenian forces from all the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

The mission reminded that the primary aim of Azerbaijan’s participation in the peace process is to ensure the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh region and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Deviation by the OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chairmen from the framework defined by the UNSC undermines the mandate entrusted to it and could have a serious impact on conflict resolution process.

Armenia has been flagrantly violating the principle of the non-use of force by consolidating the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan, denying the rights of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons to return to their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh region and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan, undertaking consistent efforts to alter the demographic, cultural and physical character of the occupied territories, removing any signs of their Azerbaijani cultural and historical roots and engaging in exploitation and pillaging of the resources and other wealth in those territories for its own gain, the mission stressed.

"The Minsk Group co-chairmen must return to implementation of the tasks given to them by the UN Security Council and, on this basis, engage both sides in substantive result-oriented talks," the statement reads.

"If they are unable to withdraw the Armenian troops from the occupied territories and address many other challenges to the peace process, Azerbaijan has every right to defend its territory and protect its people by all means."