President Aliyev sees OSCE Minsk Group as mainly intent on preventing war, not restoring justice
BAKU. June 26 (Interfax) - The Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which mediates the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, is trying more to prevent a war than to restore justice, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said.
"Regrettably, what the mediators dealing with this issue - the OSCE Minsk Group - are trying to do is not to resolve the conflict peacefully but they have been busy boosting mutual confidence-building measures. First among the mutual confidence-building measures is a withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azeri territories. Talks must be held in earnest. Regrettably, the mediators are making efforts aimed at preventing a war rather than restoring justice," Aliyev told the participants of a large-scale military exercise held on Thursday on the occasion of the 96th anniversary since the creation of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan.
"Under such conditions, Azerbaijan has been paying more attention to building its army and will continue doing so. If talks yield no results, there will be no other way left to us," the president added.
The forces seeking to keep this conflict frozen are reaching their goals, the president said.
"We don't want a war, we want the issue to be resolved peacefully. However, we can see that for the past 20 years this issue has not been finding a solution. Unfortunately, the forces willing to keep this conflict frozen are reaching their goals. As for us, we don't want to put with this situation and we won't. We want peace but at the same time we want to get our lands back, we want to justice to be restored," Aliyev said.
Azerbaijan's claims are based on history, international law and justice, said the head of state.
"Nagorno-Karabakh is the original Azerbaijani land. The international community recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. No one will ever recognize the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh republic. Azerbaijan will never let a second Armenian state to be created in its territory. This is our principled position and we shall not retreat by a single step," Aliyev said.
