Monday, February 20 2017 13:51

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.