Azerbaijan will never reconcile with the seizure of its territories, Elmar Mammadyarov says

"The Nagorno-Karabakh region has always been and will remain inalienable part of Azerbaijan," Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov made remarks at the General Debate of the 70th session of the General Assembly of the United Nation, SIA reports.

According to the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Armenia unleashed the war and used force against Azerbaijan, occupied almost one fifth of its territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent districts, carried out ethnic cleansing of the seized areas by expelling about one million Azerbaijanis from their homes and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the conflict. The international community has consistently deplored, in the strongest terms, the use of force by Armenia against Azerbaijan and the resulting occupation of its territories.

Elmar Mammadyarov stressed that in 1993, the UN Security Council adopted resolutions 822 (1993), 853 (1993), 874 (1993) and 884 (1993), condemning the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan and reaffirming respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the inviolability of its internationally recognized borders. In those resolutions, the Security Council also confirmed that the Nagorno-Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan, and demanded immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces from all the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Other international organizations have adopted a similar position."

Azerbaijani Minister also noted that in its landmark judgment in the case of Chiragov and others versus Armenia, the European Court of Human Rights held Armenia responsible for the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan and violations of the rights of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons. In total disregard of this judgment and the norms and principles of international law, Armenia continues its efforts aimed at further consolidating the status quo of the occupation by altering the physical, demographic and cultural characters of the occupied territories and to deny the right of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani forcibly displaced persons to return to their homes and access to their properties.

"On 26 September 2015, the President of Armenia made a statement referring to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as part of Armenia. We categorically reject this fallacious and bellicose statement, which testifies to Armenia’s apparent disregard of its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and international law, represents a yet another admission at the highest level of aggression perpetrated by Armenia against Azerbaijan and demonstrates how the leadership of Armenia is far from engaging in a constructive search for peace. In that statement, Armenian President even boasted his country to be one of the most militarized areas of the world." added Mr Mammadyarov.

Against this background, Armenia’s speculations on confidence-building measures are curious, to say the least. In fact, the real reasons for the lack of confidence are Armenia’s overt territorial claims to neighboring countries, aggression against Azerbaijan, occupation and ethnic cleansing of its territories, denial of its responsibility for atrocious crimes committed in the course of the conflict, opposition to direct contacts between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and reluctance to cooperate seriously on the issues of missing persons.

In reality, for an effective confidence building, it is critical, first and foremost, to implement without further delay the plan of withdrawal of the armed forces of Armenia from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. As for the ideas on elaborating a mechanism for investigating incidents along the line of contact, we should note that the major cause of those incidents is the continuing unlawful presence of the Armenian armed forces in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Such an investigation mechanism must be an integral component of the above-mentioned withdrawal plan. Otherwise, it will serve for consolidating the status quo, which even the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries have repeatedly stated to be unacceptable and unsustainable.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region has always been and will remain inalienable part of Azerbaijan. We will never reconcile with the seizure of our territories. The conflict can only be resolved on the basis of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders. The military occupation of the territory of Azerbaijan does not represent a solution and shall never produce a political outcome desired by Armenia. The sooner Armenia reconciles with this reality, the earlier the conflict will be resolved and the countries and peoples in the region will benefit from the prospects of cooperation and economic development.

Azerbaijan is the most interested party in the soonest negotiated settlement of the conflict. However, if the negotiations fail to bring as an outcome the complete and unconditional withdrawal of the armed forces of Armenia from our occupied lands, Azerbaijan will be compelled to use its inherent right of self-defence guaranteed under Article 51 of the UN Charter to ensure the restoration of its sovereignty and territorial integrity within the internationally recognized borders.

Azerbaijan highly appreciates the principled stance of the States Members of the United Nations that has been repeatedly expressed on issues that are of utmost importance for Azerbaijan and pertaining to its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We count on the continued resolve of the international community in defending the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, as well as its strong solidarity with the just position of Azerbaijan.