FM: Azerbaijan `ready` to start work on major peace agreement
Vilnius, December 7 (AZERTAC). Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has expressed his country`s readiness to begin work on a major peace agreement.
Mammadyarov responded to questions from journalists during his visit to Vilnius.
“The talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have continued for 20 years. Unfortunately, the Azerbaijani lands are still under occupation. The Armenians carried out ethnic cleansing in our occupied lands.”
“The last seven years of negotiations are particularly intense, because of the Prague process. In this context, it produced more specific results, which are called Madrid principles, reflecting the outcome of the negotiations, which began in 2004.”
“These principles are the basis to identify the parameters of a peace agreement. In general, being aware of the failure to find the final points of contact, knowing that these principles are a good basis for moving forward and conclude the main peace agreement, the Azerbaijani side suggests the next step to begin work on a major peace agreement," he said.
Mammadyarov called the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict “a multi-faceted, complex issue”.
"We need to consider the military factor, the problem with the return of land, big financial problems. To date, there are various initiatives to strengthen confidence-building measures between the sides, there are contacts between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities. Thus, the only way out is not only the continuation of negotiations, but also the intensification of contacts.”
Commenting on Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian`s statement regarding obstruction, allegedly, caused by Azerbaijan to build a mechanism to investigate incidents at the contact line, Mammadyarov called it “a populist statement”.
"First of all, we must understand what is a mechanism, an incident. There is the military factor out there, this is the real front line, this is a war, killing not only military but also civilians. Thus, Azerbaijan cannot and is not interested in hampering the resolution of this issue,” Mammadyarov said.
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