Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani official has voiced concern over delay in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Ali Hasanov, Azerbaijan’s deputy prime minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs said that despite the resolutions of international organizations, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unresolved.

He made the remarks during a meeting with OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in Baku on June 14.

“Both Armenians and Azerbaijanis are waiting for resolution of the conflict. This conflict is not the fault of the peoples, we lived together for many years. If not this conflict, all the energy and railway projects of Azerbaijan would pass through Armenia. But what the Armenian government can give to its people today? Serzh Sargsyan must be asked what he has achieved by this conflict?” Hasanov said.

He also informed the co-chairs about the history of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and said that the conflict culminated during the Soviet period.

“The Sumgayit events were organized by Mikhail Gorbachev in order to justify the subsequent events in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Hasanov said.

The co-chairs, in turn, said the issue of returning of internally displaced peoples to their home is in focus.

“We meet not only with the officials, but also civilians and refugees. The issue of returning IDPs to their homeland is in our spotlight,” said Igor Popov, the Russian co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group .

James Warlick, the U.S. co-chair, for his part, thanked Hasanov for the meeting and congratulated the Azerbaijani government with the work carried out to improve the living conditions of IDPs.

On the dame day, James Warlick, Pierre Andrieu, the co-chair from France, and Igor Popov, as well as OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk held a meeting in Azerbaijan’s Absheron district with the IDPs from Azerbaijan’s occupied Zangilan region and Zangilan region secondary school No 33 in Baku.

The bloody war, which flared up in the late 1980s as a result of Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor, left 700,000 civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh, the regions adjoining it, as well as regions bordering Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh without homes.

They are provided temporary shelter in more than 1,600 settlements across 62 cities and regions of Azerbaijan.

Moreover, 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia and became refugees due to Armenia's ethnic cleansing policy after the eruption of violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Azerbaijanis who had been displaced from their homes as result of the brutal war were forced to live in refugee camps and tents under very difficult conditions.

Peace talks brokered by mediators from Russia, France, and the U.S. have produced no results thus far.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on the Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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