By Akbar Mammadov

Norway does not recognize so-called “elections” held on March 31 in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region occupied by Armenia.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva said this in her Twitter account on April 7.

"Yet another member of international community rejecting mock “elections” in occupied lands of Azerbaijan", she twitted.

“Norway doesn’t recognize so-called Nagorno-Karabakh republic & accordingly “elections held on 31 March. Norway supports territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” the tweet reads.

Earlier, a number of countries, including France, Germany, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia as well as major international organizations such as the EU, NATO, OIC, GUAM condemned the illegal elections in Karabakh and voiced support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.