Swiss envoy: Karabakh conflict negatively affects whole region

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Switzerland very strongly supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group for peaceful resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Swiss Ambassador to Azerbaijan Philipp Stalder told Trend.

“We think that both conflicting sides should sit down at the negotiation table and hold meaningful peace negotiations in a more structured way,” the ambassador said. “Of course, any conflict has negative impact on the neighboring countries and the whole region and that is, unfortunately, also the case for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. 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.