Azerbaijani MP: Karabakh conflict poses threat to regional security

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The Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict poses a threat to regional security, Azerbaijani MP Elshad Hasanov said at the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg April 25.

"I think that the protracted conflicts are a serious challenge for the European continent,” he said. “In this regards, the unsettled conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan poses a threat to regional security."

“Armenia continues to occupy Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent districts,” he said. "The international community recognizes that these are integral parts of Azerbaijan."

“As a result of this conflict, almost one million Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their native lands,” he said. "They turned into internally displaced people on their territory."

Speaking about the work being carried out by the Azerbaijani government to improve the living conditions of refugees, the MP stressed that the country is ready to share experience in solving the humanitarian crises.

Azerbaijani MP Sahiba Gafarova also delivered speech at the event.

“The Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan led to the occupation of 20 percent of the country's territory, a full-scale war and the mass displacement of thousands of people, including women and children,” she said.

"Azerbaijan is solving the problem of its refugees and internally displaced people, whose number has grown to 1.2 million,” she said. “Corresponding measures have been taken to improve the living conditions of these people. Thus, 95 residential complexes were built according to modern standards. More than 25,000 refugees and internally displaced people received new apartments."

Gafarova also stressed that after the occupation of 20 percent of the Azerbaijani territories, all the occupied districts were renamed.

"The Azerbaijani city of Khojaly is now called Ivanyan,” she said.

“Khristofor Ivanyan was a general in the Armenian army who actively participated in the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh region," Gafarova said, stressing the need to use the original Azerbaijani names.

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.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.