Azerbaijan Says UN Should Solve Karabakh Conflict

Elmar Mammadyarov (file) (ITAR-TASS) October 4, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Azerbaijan says the United Nations Security Council is the only place to find a solution to the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia.

Speaking to the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said international law and four relevant Security Council resolutions should form the legal basis of a resolution of the conflict.


Mammadyarov rejected the statement from his Armenian counterpart, Vartan Oskanian, who told the General Assembly that a Karabakh solution should be negotiated only through the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.


Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave inside Azerbaijan with a mostly ethnic Armenian population. Armenian forces seized control of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.


A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but the two countries have failed to negotiate a settlement on the region's status.

RFE/RL Caucasus Report

RFE/RL Caucasus Report


SUBSCRIBE For weekly news and in-depth analysis on Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia's North Caucasus by e-mail, subscribe to "RFE/RL Caucasus Report."