Azerbaijan backpedals progress in the talks by shutting the door upon negotiations with Nagorno-Karabakh, however it will not avoid facing consequences of its actions of unleashed aggression, RA Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan stated commenting on Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov’s recent statement.

“Mr. Mammadyarov presented the results he can achieve if holds talks with himself, and if only Azerbaijan drafts and signs a peace treaty with itself. Obviously, Azerbaijani FM’s recent statement is another fruitless attempt to justify the aggression against self-determined NKR under Azerbaijan’s constitution by gross violation of the UN Charter. The constitution was adopted after the ceasefire agreement and has nothing to do with Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which has its own Constitution,” Kocharyan noted.

March 18, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister stated that all Azeri citizens should attend the referendum on determining status for Nagorno-Karabakh, conducted on the territory of Azerbaijan, adding that Nagorno-Karabakh participation in the talks conflicts with OSCE Minsk Group principles.

The Nagorno-Karabakh (armed) conflict broke out back in 1991, when, subsequent to the demand for self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh people, Azerbaijani authorities attempted to resolve the issue through ethnic cleansings, carried out by Soviet security forces (KGB special units) under the pretext of the implementation of the passport regime and by launching of large-scale military operations, which left thousands dead and caused considerable material damage. A cease-fire agreement was established in 1994. Negotiations on the settlement of the conflict are being conducted under the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen (Russia, USA, France) and on the basis of their Madrid proposals, presented in November, 2007.

Azerbaijan has not yet implemented the 4 resolutions of the UN Security Council adopted in 1993, by continuing to provoke arms race in the region and openly violating one of the basic principles of the international law non-use of force or threat of force.

L.A.