Belarus President urges Armenia to liberate occupied Azerbaijani lands - PHOTOS

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday at the meeting with CIS countries Editors' Club members, urged Armenia to liberate the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

According to him, the occupation of Azerbaijani lands can't continue.

"The solution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict exists," Lukashenko said. "This issue has been worked repeatedly in different directions, so the conflict can be settled in a short time, but the parties must show the political will."

Minsk is hosting the VII Forum of European and Asian media on December 10-11. More than 200 leaders of the major media of the CIS countries, the Baltic States and Georgia are participating in the event.

Lukashenko stressed that the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly stated at the meetings that he is ready to continue negotiations in a constructive way.

The president of Belarus underscored that the growth of Azerbaijan's military potential is caused not by the Karabakh conflict alone.

"Azerbaijan - is power," Lukashenko said, noting that it is a small but rich country, on which the public attention is focused, and the President of Azerbaijan considers it necessary to increase the capacity of the country in terms of security in this situation.

"Therefore, President Ilham Aliyev wants to have a strong army," Lukashenko said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 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 the 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/