By R.Ravichandran
BAKU (AZERBAIJAN), Oct 24 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The continued occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia remain a serious threat to regional and international security and undermine the efforts of Azerbaijan to utilise its full potential for sustainable development, said Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
He said the conflict with Armenia has resulted in the occupation of one fifth of the territory of Azerbaijan, and caused around one million people to become refugees and internally displaced.
“Since the very first day of the conflict, combat operations have been conducted exclusively inside the territory of Azerbaijan, almost in the middle of the country, affecting its civilian population and infrastructure,” he said.
Mammadyarov said this in his speech at the Preparatory Ministerial Meeting of the 18th Summit of Heads of State and Government of NAM, here, Wednesday.
The 18th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of NAM will be held on Oct 25-26. The Summit was preceded by the Preparatory Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) on Oct 21-22 and the Preparatory Ministerial Meeting on October 23-24.
“I wish to express the warmest gratitude to all member States of NAM for their continued support to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognised borders,” he further said.
NAM currently has 120 member countries, 17 observer countries and 10 observer organisations.
The NAM has its basic concepts originating from the Asian-African Conference – also known as Bandung Conference – held in Indonesia in 1955, which was the cornerstone for the movement’s formation later, which, among others, fought for respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations, recognition of the equality among all races and all nations and non-intervention or non-interference into the internal affairs of another country.
The conflict between the two countries started in 1988 – three years before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 – following Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
And in 1992, war broke out between the two former Soviet states, resulting in Armenia’s occupation of 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts. All these areas are internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
However, Armenia has yet to withdraw its armed forces until today. Due to the current occupation by Armenia, no diplomatic relations exist between the two countries.
Armenia’s occupation has never been recognised by the international community or any other country, including Malaysia.
Malaysia supported the four United Nations resolutions adopted during the conflict, which, among others, reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
For the record, Malaysia also support the resolutions on Azerbaijan’s position in regards to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at other major international forums, including the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Azerbaijan, located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia and populated by 10 million people, is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, where 96 per cent of its citizens are Muslims.
After asserting its independence from Russia in 1918 and prior to its incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1920, Azerbaijan gained the distinction of being the first democratic state in the Muslim world. In October 1991, Azerbaijan declared its independence from the then Soviet Union.
–NNN-BERNAMA