Azerbaijan urges West to show fair position on Karabakh conflict

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.19 By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend: There wouldn’t be such tense situation in the world if everyone conscientiously fulfilled its obligations, the deputy head of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, chief of the administration’s Foreign Relations Department, Novruz Mammadov said on Nov.19. The top official made the remarks at the international conference on “Achievements and future prospects of NGO cooperation” organized by the Council of State Support to Non-Governmental Organizations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Baku. Following the collapse of the bipolar world, the West started to show geopolitical attitude to all the processes by prioritizing its own interests, which led to such a tense situation in the world, according to Mammadov. “We can talk a lot about the steps taken against Azerbaijan. For instance, military exercises were held in Azerbaijan’s occupied land five days ago,” he said. Meanwhile, the top official added that Russia held military exercises in 150 kilometers from Ukrainian border a month ago and the West made statements expressing concern about the purposes of these exercises. “Why has not there been such an attitude with regard to the drills, carried out in the occupied territory of Azerbaijan?,” Mammadov said, adding that Azerbaijan banned the flights over these territories in 1994, but no one ever talks about that. “Why haven't international NGOs reacted to that? Even today, the incident is presented by the Western media in a distorted form,” he said. “I say all this because we have gathered here with an aim to cooperate.” Mammadov noted that such processes are the main causes of the tense situation in the world. “Why should the separatist structure or Armenia conduct exercises on the territory of Azerbaijan?,” he added. He further said that Azerbaijan wants the West to express fair position on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “Why can’t the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs take successful steps? Because, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs as well have completely forgotten international law,” Mammadov said, adding “They never talk about the four resolutions of the UN Security Council.” He said the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent districts of the country have been occupied, and hundreds of thousands of people are deprived of their fundamental rights. “Why don’t the international NGOs talk about this?,” Mammadov said. “Just look at the post-Soviet countries, they all wanted to integrate with the West,” he said. “But now they say that they do not see the West’s warm attitude." He said that despite Armenia has talked about the desire to sign an association agreement with the EU, the Armenian president has recently stated about the country’s joining the other union. "Yanukovych in Ukraine asked for a little time,” he said. “Did you see what happened in Ukraine? If there is no justice in the world, we can't talk about international law. Azerbaijan is very concerned with these issues. If the OSCE Minsk Group’s activity continues in a similar way, perhaps, we will try to solve the problem ourselves. It is our right." “The military exercises were a provocation against Azerbaijan,” he said. “The Armenian military helicopter flew several times over our soldiers in the Aghdam district. They were even able to record it on video." Edited by SI Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency