Azerbaijan calls upon the international community to exert pressure on Armenia to start resolving the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov at UNGA.

” We call upon the international community to send a strong message to and exert pressure on Armenia to ensure its full compliance with international law and to immediately and unconditionally start implementation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions adopted with regard to the settlement ofthe Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict,” Mammadyarov said.

The minister stressed that “new leadership should understand that their promises to the Armenian people to make Armenia economically developed and prosperous state can’t be possible without peace, good neighborly relations and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors.”

“If the new Armenian leadership is calling itself democracy, then they have to act in accordance with the rule of law and democratic values and let those uprooted people return to their homes and withdraw its armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as it is demanded by the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and other international organizations”, added Mammadyarov.

“In its resolutions of 822 (1993), 853 (1993), 874 (1993) and 884 (1993), the UN Security Council acknowledged the fact that military force was used against Azerbaijan; that such actions are unlawful and in contradiction with the purposes and principles of UN Charter; and that they constitute an obvious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The numerous decisions and documents adopted by other authoritative international organizations have been framed along the same lines. However, the key Security Council demands, including in the first place the withdrawal of the Armenian forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, have not been implemented yet.

“Azerbaijan sincerely believes that there is no alternative to peace, stability and mutually beneficial regional cooperation and is the most interested party in the earliest political settlement of the conflict. At the same time, no settlement of the conflict can be reached which violates the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan and is inconsistent with international law. The resolution of the conflict is possible only on the basis of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders,” he added.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.