Azerbaijan is concerned about signals that suggest Armenia’s disinterest in a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated at the meeting in the format of “January 28" of the North Atlantic Council, Trend News reports.
Despite all the efforts of Azerbaijan and the international mediators to achieve a peaceful resolution, Mammadyarov said, Armenia keeps an extremely destructive position in the negotiations, daily acting on the ground, he said.
“Azerbaijan recognizes the importance of a robust cease-fire regime that should minimize human losses. We have now a very delicate situation. It is not only about whether Armenia accepts a proposal of the OSCE Minsk Group or not. It is about whether Armenia is sincerely willing to change the status-quo in any way under any condition. We start to have our doubts over Armenia, which is not interested in a peaceful solution to the conflict,” Mammadyarov said.
“Armenia supports the growing settlements in the occupied territories; Azerbaijani cultural and historic heritage in the occupied territories is systematically destructed; property of the forcibly expelled Azerbaijani population is being privatized; there are illegal archaeological excavations that should support their claim that the occupied territories are actually historically Armenian’. In other words, Armenia tries to make the situation irreversible. These provocative actions put additional time pressure on us,” he noted.
“Armenia often appeals to ban on the use of military force in resolving the conflict, but says nothing about that it having used force against the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, militarily occupied a significant part of Azerbaijan. Armenia represents a challenge to both Azerbaijan and the entire international community. The international community should unequivocally state that the status quo - the continuing use of force is unacceptable,” he said.
It is noteworthy, over the recent months the Azerbaijani side has been committing act of sabotage in the line of contact of NKR and Azerbaijani armed forces along with ceasefire violations.
