The president of the 62nd UN General Assembly believes raising the Nagorno-Karabakh issue on the level of the General Assembly signals strengthening of the international interest to the region. “The fact that Azerbaijan raised the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh on the level of UN General Assembly is strengthening the international interest to the events in that region,” President of the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, former Macedonian Foreign Minister, Srgjan Kerim told Trend News.

Mr. Kerim reminded that the resolution about the situation on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan has been added to UN GA agenda few years ago and is being passed to the next sessions. He said “the future of this resolution depends on Azerbaijan itself, but lobbing at UN is playing a big role in such kind of issues”.

He also added that there are usually quite a lot of supporters to such resolution, because the facts that are shown there are based on many other international documents including UN resolutions. On the other hand, president of the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly is not satisfied with the involvement of UN in the frozen conflicts matters. He thinks that the UN mechanisms on adjusting conflicts must be strengthened.

“The effectiveness of international security system impacts on the authority of the UN. As you know, the democratization of the UN was the overarching priority of my presidency. I believe UN needs to take radical steps. We are certainly the most representative body of the international system. But I don’t think we can say UN is the most effective,” said Mr. Kerim.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.