FM: Armenia slows down peace negotiations

By Azernews

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister has said that Armenia deliberately slows down peace negotiations to preserve the status quo around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Instead of engaging faithfully into the negotiations with Azerbaijan under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group, Armenia, with the purpose of winning time for consolidation of results of occupation and ethnic cleansing, is abusing the commitment of Azerbaijan to peaceful settlement of the conflict supported by the international community and is taking every opportunity to slow down the process of negotiations and to escape the solution,” Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said.

The minister made the remarks during the Fourth Meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Contact Group on the aggression of the Republic of Armenia against the Republic of Azerbaijan in New York on 23 September.

Mammadyarov commented on Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s August speech about the unification of Karabakh with Armenia, saying that Pashinyan “cynically distorted the aim of negotiations under the OSCE Minsk Group auspices describing that as ‘to defend the outcomes of the war’”.

“In his speech Pashinyan glorified the results of the conflict that caused well-documented massacres of innocents, ethnic cleansing of more than a million Azerbaijani civilians and deprivation of IDPs from their rights to return to their homes… This move follows other recent provocative statements made by various members of the Armenian Government on not returning to Azerbaijan ‘an inch of land’ and threatening by ‘new war for new territories’ as well as its actions on resettlement of the ethnically cleansed territories of Azerbaijan by Armenian settlers and illegal exploitation of the natural resources of the occupied territories,” Mammadyarov said.

The minister noted that mediation efforts carried out within the OSCE have not yielded any results so far. Despite the establishment of a ceasefire, the towns and villages in Azerbaijan situated along the front line of the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the border between the two States continue to be attacked resulting in killing and wounding of Azerbaijani servicemen and civilians, the minister noted.

Mammadyarov urged the international community “not to give to the Armenian government any sense of impunity and any opportunity to protract the conflict.”

“In light of Armenia’s irresponsible behavior, the future of the peaceful negotiations resides in the ability, willingness and determination of the international community, including the Islamic Ummah, to act promptly and resolutely on this matter of deep concern,” Mammadyarov said.

The minister expressed hope that the adoption by the OIC Member States of the resolution “On Solidarity with the Victims of the Khojaly Massacre of 1992” at the 45th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Dhaka in 2016, will contribute to the efforts of the OIC Member States for recognition of Khojaly genocide at the national and international levels.

In turn, OIC Secretary General Yousef Al-Othaimeen noted that the OIC has been following this crisis since 1992 and has always condemned Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan, and considered the occupation of a great part of the Azerbaijani territories as illegal.

Al-Othaimeen said the OIC member-states have called for the implementation of the UN Security Council’s corresponding resolutions and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

“The OIC supports Azerbaijan’s all efforts to inform the international community of Armenia’s regular violations of the ceasefire on the contact line, as well as the periodic publication of detailed reports on these violations by Azerbaijan,” he stressed.

Al-Othaimeen expressed concern over the suffering of more than one million refugees and IDPs in Azerbaijan. He also called on member-states and their corresponding bodies to render the necessary material and humanitarian assistance to victims in Azerbaijan.

“The OIC, which has always called for the just and peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, encourages all efforts and initiatives in this sphere,” he added.

In the end, Al-Othaimeen expressed hope that the OIC meeting will create the conditions for reaching consensus on the collective and individual efforts of the OIC member-states to force Armenia to respect Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and unconditionally withdraw its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.