Envoy: France will continue efforts towards resolving Karabakh conflict

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

France supports peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, French Ambassador to Azerbaijan Aurelia Bouchez told journalists on her visit on December 11 to a new settlement built for internally displaced persons in Tartar region of Azerbaijan. 

“France stands for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As OSCE Minsk Group co-chair country, France will continue to make efforts to achieve progress in the conflict settlement,” she said.

Bouchez added she was visiting Tartar region for the first time.

“I am quite impressed with the quality of buildings built here – schools and apartments. I think this is very important, because it is necessary to take care of people’s lives. All this shows how important it is to achieve a peaceful settlement of the conflict,” the ambassador noted.

American professor James Quayle has also visited the new settlement in Tartar.

“I became in the first hand familiar with conditions created by Azerbaijani government for IDPs and this is incredible. I wish we had such a school in the place where I live in the U.S.,” he told reporters.

Touching upon the solution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Quayle noted it is necessary to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of countries. He said the conflict should be settled in accordance with the principles and norms of international law.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in a conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

Due to the ethnic cleansing policy carried out by Armenia, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan hit more than 1.2 million. With a population of over 9.8 million, Azerbaijan is among the countries carrying the highest IDP caseload in the world in per capita terms.

With the growing economic and political situation of the country, Azerbaijan pays much attention to the most difficult problems once concerning the refugees and IDPs. The state improves the living conditions of refugees and IDPs and it has adopted relevant state programs and legislative acts.

The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, but they have not been enforced to this day.