ArmInfo."The practice of double standards applied in respect of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan should be discontinued. This will help settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the round table titled 'The hidden problems of Eurasia' at the Munich Security Conference, when replying to Vestnik Kavkaza's question.
Vestnik Kavkaza quotes Aliyev as saying, "The core of the negotiation process of the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the USA, Russia and France. We do not expect the direct participation of the EU in the negotiations, although the European Commission appointed the Special Representative for the Caucasus, who is engaged in the conflict resolution. From the EU and from all the countries we expect the support of a single standard approach to all the conflicts in the post-Soviet space. We appreciate what Ms. Merkel said today about the territorial integrity, but we want to see this principle applied to all the conflicts, but not only to the separate ones.''
"The main reason, due to which Azerbaijan did not sign the association agreement with the European Union - in addition to that we felt it was not an agreement, but the unilateral statement to us - was that they did not want to express a clear position on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict on the basis of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,'' Ilham Aliyev pointed out.
Aliyev also complained of the double standards applied by the EU. "They had these issues in the agreements with Georgia and Moldova, the conflict in Ukraine did not yet exist at that time- but as soon as it came to Azerbaijan, the double standards were applied. Russia was sanctioned for what happened in Ukraine, and Armenia was not subjected to sanctions over what happened in Nagorny Karabakh. These double standards should be eliminated. Of course, this will not lead to an instant solution of the conflict, but if we make joint efforts and pressure the aggressor, Armenia, to free the lands, then I think that the resolution of the conflict will be achieved soon,'' the president of Azerbaijan said, stressing the need to implement the four UN Security Council resolutions on Karabakh. The Azerbaijani President expressed hope that the OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chairs will be more active than they are today.
As regards the constitutional referendum in the NKR, Aliyev qualified it as illegitimate. "All countries have a clear position that they do not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent entity and they do not recognize the results of the referendums either,'' Ilham Aliyev said.
"Russia is Azerbaijan's neighbor. It has no direct border with Armenia, but these countries are neighbors in the region. Therefore, I think it is in interest of Russia to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This conflict is a source of instability, and if the situation gets out of control, the problems will spread in all the countries of the region,'' he added.