MFA: Azerbaijan has right to eliminate consequences of occupation

By Azernews

By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has said that eliminating the consequences of Armenian occupation is Baku’s unconditional right as well as international community’s commitment, the ministry stated in a press release publised on 18 May.

The ministry's statment is timed to the 28th anniversary of the occupation of Azerbaijan's Lachyn district by Armenian armed forces on 18 May 1992.

"The military occupation of the Azerbaijani territories will never yield the political results pursued by Armenia. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders has not been and cannot be a subject of negotiations", the ministry said.

The Foreign Ministry stressed that the aim of the negotiations on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is to eliminate the consequences of the conflict, thus ending the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories and restoring the fundamental human rights of the internally displaced persons.

"Armenia's speculative attempt to delay the negotiation process, thus the political settlement of the conflict by falsehood and deception, is unacceptable and poses a major obstacle to peace in the region," the ministry stated.

"However, there is an unchanging truth that the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders, including its Nagorno-Karabakh region and other adjacent districts, are recognized, as well as the consequences of the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories are unequivocally rejected by the international community", the ministry said. 

The ministry stressed that Armenia under the cover of peaceful settlement of the conflict seeks “to strengthen the dangerous status quo regime based on the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent districts of Azerbaijan and pursues the policy of annexation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.”

The ministry reminded that Armenia has been ignoring the UN Security Council resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of 1993, which reaffirm the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan and demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces from all the occupied territories.