Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh issues statement on French MPs’ illegal visit

The Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region has issued a statement in connection with the illegal visit of a group of the French MPs to the occupied Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh region, Trend reports referring to the community.

"According to the information spread in the Armenian media outlets, having made an illegal visit to the occupied Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh region, a group of the French MPs met with representatives of the occupying regime and took part in a number of "events",” the community added.

"The visit of the MPs of France to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, while the country itself recognizes the sovereignty of Azerbaijan within the internationally recognized borders and being one of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, is provocative and does not correspond to the position of the mediating country,” the community said.

"We, as the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, along with a statement about the inadmissibility of such a visit, urge the French government to take measures to suppress steps directed against Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,” the community added.

"Till the occupied Azerbaijani territories are not liberated and the Azerbaijani people do not return to their lands, no provocative step taken by the illegal criminal "regime" and "attempts" aimed at legitimizing the results of the occupation will not give any results and will not hamper the Azerbaijani people to return to their lands,” the community said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.