FM: Status quo over Nagorno-Karabakh can re-escalate at any time

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

Armenia must realize that relying on the status quo and armed provocations is a grave miscalculation, said Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

He made the remarks in New York during the first meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on the aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan.

“Azerbaijan expects from Armenia to halt its military build-up in occupied territories, and engage in negotiations with Azerbaijan in good faith so as to find a political solution to the conflict, which is long overdue,” he stressed, adding that “the sooner Armenia withdraws its troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, the better it is for the regional security.”

Mammadyarov noted that OIC, on the basis of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, has explicitly determined the actions of Armenia on the territory of Azerbaijan as aggression and condemned in the strongest possible terms the use of force against Azerbaijan and the occupation of its territories.

Twenty-four years have passed since the beginning of the conflict. However, in total disregard of the demands of UN Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions, decisions of OIC, other international organizations and positions of individual states, and in flagrant violation of norms and principles of international law, Armenia continues to unlawfully occupy the Azerbaijani territories, Foreign Minister said.

Armenia continues to undertake efforts aimed at further consolidating the current status quo of the occupation, strengthening its military build-up in the seized territories, changing their demographic, cultural and physical character and preventing the hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani forcibly displaced persons from returning to their homes and properties in those areas, he added.

“The April escalation was a vivid reminder that the status quo is dangerous and has the potential to re-escalate at any time with unpredictable consequences,” Mammadyarov stressed.

He then expressed hope that the deliberations within OIC contact group will contribute to the implementation of the relevant OIC resolutions and will help to harmonize the individual and joint efforts of the OIC member states to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.