Tuesday, July 12 2016 04:55

"The conflict (Karabakh - ed.) will soon have to find a solution, and the status quo will have to be changed," Turan quotes Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as saying at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers. 

Aliyev stressed the importance of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the principles of international law and the "territorial integrity of Azerbaijan". "The only solution is a phased settlement," said Aliyev, noting that achieving this requires a lot of pressure of the OSCE co-chair countries on Armenia. 

Aliyev also touched on the April war initiated by Azerbaijan against Karabakh. He noted that the Azerbaijani army was able to seize 2,000 hectares. 

To note, Yerevan has already responded to this statement of the Azerbaijani leader. Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan says that the Madrid document proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs implies a package settlement of the Karabakh problem based on mutual concessions.   

"One of the key elements of this package settlement is the determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh in compliance with the Nagorno-Karabakh people's legally binding expression of will. The adoption of the Madrid document as a whole, including the idea of a referendum as the basis for negotiations, was a serious compromise from Armenia, because the referendum on Karabakh's independence was held before the collapse of the Soviet Union in full compliance with the fundamental standards of international law and the then Constitution and laws of the USSR. The mediators substantiated the idea of a new referendum by the intention to give time to the Azerbaijani authorities to prepare their citizens for inevitability of such a referendum, as well as for long-term peace, not war. But the Azerbaijani leadership used the period after the adoption of the Madrid document to distort the core of the negotiation process, sow the seeds of hatred against Armenians, prepare Azeri population for war, maintain tension and mount sabotage attacks on the borders with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the Republic of Armenia," Kocharyan says. 
He notes that Azerbaijan's aggression in April vividly demonstrated its leadership's inability to observe the international commitments it assumed under the agreements it signed, and proved that the launch of the package settlement of the Karabakh conflict should be marked by Azerbaijan's recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan's statement about its willingness to return the NKR territories it has occupied.  "The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has nothing to do with Nagorno-Karabakh and the conflict should be resolved within the framework of the Nagorno-Karabakh people's right to self-determination and Azerbaijan's accountability for the aggression against the self- determined Nagorno-Karabakh Republic," he says.