BAKU CALLS ON OSCE MINSK GROUP TO INCREASE PRESSURE ON ARMENIA
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
April 16 2013
First Deputy Chairman of Azerbaijan's Parliament, Ziyafat Asgarov, said
that the mediating OSCE Minsk Group must increase pressure on Armenia.
"Unfortunately, the current visit if the Minsk Group representatives
to the region has not been marked by any innovations," he said on
Tuesday. "So, this cannot continue. We have always said and now we
insist on strengthening their pressure on Armenia."
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a brutal war in the early 1990s that
concluded with the signing of a fragile cease-fire. Since the war,
Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's
territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.
Mediators from Russia, France and the U.S. -- co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group -- have been brokering peace talks over the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since the 1994 ceasefire, but their efforts
have not produced any result yet.
Asgarov went on saying that surely, the delay in this issue in
particular, poses a threat to the activity of the Minsk Group.
The society has such an impression that they only make visits and
are unable to commit any action, he stressed.
"We have repeatedly stated that the opportunity of resolving this
conflict peacefully has not been exhausted. But if we see that Armenia
is engaged in imitating the negotiations or avoiding them, then of
course, Azerbaijan has the opportunity to liberate its occupied lands.
We have sufficient military power," Asgarov said.
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
April 16 2013
First Deputy Chairman of Azerbaijan's Parliament, Ziyafat Asgarov, said
that the mediating OSCE Minsk Group must increase pressure on Armenia.
"Unfortunately, the current visit if the Minsk Group representatives
to the region has not been marked by any innovations," he said on
Tuesday. "So, this cannot continue. We have always said and now we
insist on strengthening their pressure on Armenia."
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a brutal war in the early 1990s that
concluded with the signing of a fragile cease-fire. Since the war,
Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's
territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.
Mediators from Russia, France and the U.S. -- co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group -- have been brokering peace talks over the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since the 1994 ceasefire, but their efforts
have not produced any result yet.
Asgarov went on saying that surely, the delay in this issue in
particular, poses a threat to the activity of the Minsk Group.
The society has such an impression that they only make visits and
are unable to commit any action, he stressed.
"We have repeatedly stated that the opportunity of resolving this
conflict peacefully has not been exhausted. But if we see that Armenia
is engaged in imitating the negotiations or avoiding them, then of
course, Azerbaijan has the opportunity to liberate its occupied lands.
We have sufficient military power," Asgarov said.