The United States and France are trying to return to the settlement process without offering anything concrete - Tofig Zulfugarov

Baku/15.04.21/Turan: The statement of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs testifies to the discontent of the West that Russia and Turkey play a decisive role in the post-conflict situation in Karabakh. Former Foreign Minister Tofik Zulfugarov said this in an interview with Turan, answering the question of how he views the latest statement of the OSCE Minsk Group.

“The United States and France want to become participants in the settlement process, however, as the President of Azerbaijan said, the Minsk Group did not make any specific proposals, did not put forward ideas. In general, this is the issue of the sovereign right of Azerbaijan: we want, we invite mediators, we don’t want, we don’t invite.

In general, it is difficult to imagine that the OSCE Minsk Group would offer something fundamentally new,” Zulfugarov said.

In his opinion, the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group could be appropriate as an organizer of a donor conference on Karabakh with the aim of restoring the conflict zone. “In any case, so far no practical proposals have been received from the mediators, except for meaningless statements,” he said.

How substantiated are the statements of official Baku that the conflict has been settled, taking into account the fact that Baku and Yerevan have not concluded a peace agreement? Answering this question, Zulfugarov noted that Azerbaijan liberated its territories from under 30 years of occupation.

“In this sense, the conflict has been settled and the interstate border has been restored, although not completely. That is, we put an end to the occupation. As for the rest of the issues, this is no longer a conflict, but the problem of cohabitation of Azerbaijanis and Armenians, the re-ingeneration of the Armenian population into the Azerbaijani state. To resolve these issues, Azerbaijan has chosen partners in the person of Russia and Turkey, and this process is going on as usual.

Some countries say that the conflict has not been resolved, it is necessary to discuss the status of Karabakh, but here it is primarily our opinion that is important, and not that of other countries. The conflict has been resolved, the occupation has ended, and we will resolve the remaining issues within the framework of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan,” Tofig Zulfugarov stressed. -3И-