Armenia does not want peace and tries to maintain the status quo in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in a statement for the press following the meeting with his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in Baku Oct. 24.

President Aliyev said he had informed his Croatian counterpart about the current state of the negotiations between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Unfortunately, Armenia occupied 20 percent of the Azerbaijani territory – not only Nagorno-Karabakh region but also seven adjacent district. As a result of the occupation, more than 1 million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internal displaced persons,” said Ilham Aliyev.

Armenia conducted a policy of ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani people, said the president, stressing important decisions and resolutions adopted by international organizations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

He noted that the four UN resolutions on the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from the Azerbaijani territories remain unfilled.

The European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Non-Aligned Movement have adopted similar documents, added President Aliyev.

“Unfortunately, the conflict is not solved, because Armenia does not want peace and instead tries to keep the status quo unchanged. Armenia does not want to listen to the clear statement made several times by the presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group countries – the US, Russia, and France,” he said.

“This is a message that we direct to the Armenian leadership, who are seeking to keep the status quo unchanged and ignoring not only the UN Security Council resolutions and international norms, but also the statements of three leading world countries. This is unacceptable,” added President Aliyev.

The president stressed that the international community is supposed to take serious steps to pressure the Armenians to respect international law and free the lands which are not theirs but ours, without putting forward any demand.

According to the president, the conflict must be settled within internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan.

“No country in the world, including Armenia itself, does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s puppet regime,” said Ilham Aliyev, adding that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is of equal importance as that of any other country.

Apa.az