Baku slams visit by Austrian parliamentary to Karabakh

Source: AzerNews

Australian MPs have shown disrespect to the official position of their countries and the principles of international law by their visit to the Armenia-occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told media.

Abdullayev said that Azerbaijan's position on foreign citizens' visits to Nagorno-Karabakh which have not been agreed upon with the Azerbaijani side in advance is unchanged and Baku will continue to deem them illegal.

According to him, all of Azerbaijan's diplomatic missions abroad have placed information on their websites, urging citizens of the countries in which these diplomatic missions are accredited not to pay such visits.

A group of parliament members from the Australian state of New South Wales last week visited Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region under Armenian occupation.

"Australia has repeatedly voiced its support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and these actions do not reflect the country's official stance," Abdullayev added.

The Azerbaijani embassy in Australia has been instructed to convey Baku's discontent to the country's leadership.

Besides, in November 2012, Armenian media reported that the Legislative Council of the New South Wales state adopted a resolution recognizing the separatist "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic".

However, the Australian government said in a letter to the Azerbaijani government that it supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and that this position has not changed.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory have not been enforced to this day.

Russia, France and the U.S. have long been working to broker a solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through the OSCE Minsk Group, but their efforts have been largely fruitless so far.

Peace talks are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The document envisions a return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons to return home.