Azerbaijan on Tuesday welcomed a declaration adopted at the NATO summit in Chicago, saying that it endorsed Baku’s position on the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Elman Abdullayev, a spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, pointed to the declaration’s support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics locked in territorial and ethnic disputes.
“The fact that the statement was signed by major international players testifies to serious [NATO] support for Azerbaijan’s just cause in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the Trend news agency quoted Abdullayev as saying.
The NATO document made no mention of people’s self-determination with regard to the Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute, a fact denounced by Armenia. Official Yerevan says this is the reason why President Serzh Sarkisian did not take part in the weekend summit unlike his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who represented Armenia at the summit, argued in Chicago that the existing international peace proposals on Karabakh, jointly drafted by the United States, France and Russia, are based on both internationally recognized principles.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reaction came the day after a senior aide to Aliyev accused NATO and other international structures of not doing enough to accelerate a Karabakh settlement. The official, Ali Hasanov, claimed that they “lack the will to intervene” in the conflict in a way desired by Baku, according to Azerbaijani news agencies.
Elman Abdullayev, a spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, pointed to the declaration’s support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics locked in territorial and ethnic disputes.
“The fact that the statement was signed by major international players testifies to serious [NATO] support for Azerbaijan’s just cause in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the Trend news agency quoted Abdullayev as saying.
The NATO document made no mention of people’s self-determination with regard to the Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute, a fact denounced by Armenia. Official Yerevan says this is the reason why President Serzh Sarkisian did not take part in the weekend summit unlike his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who represented Armenia at the summit, argued in Chicago that the existing international peace proposals on Karabakh, jointly drafted by the United States, France and Russia, are based on both internationally recognized principles.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reaction came the day after a senior aide to Aliyev accused NATO and other international structures of not doing enough to accelerate a Karabakh settlement. The official, Ali Hasanov, claimed that they “lack the will to intervene” in the conflict in a way desired by Baku, according to Azerbaijani news agencies.