'Azerbaijan to strengthen efforts to stop illegal visits to occupied territories'

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry will strengthen efforts to stop illegal visits to the occupied territories, the spokesman for Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs Elman Abdullayev told journalists on Saturday.

He said instructions on intensification of efforts in this direction were given to diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan in foreign countries.

According to Abdullayev, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has expressed dissatisfaction to Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on the recent illegal visit of Lithuanian musicians to Nagorno-Karabakh.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.


/Trend/