Optimism in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Alíyev, assured the press days ago that he wants “to be optimistic”, with which he will manage to resolve the conflict by Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia which they have faced for 20 years. However, he doubts the neighboring country’s sincerity after remembering that “to change the status quo, withdrawal” from his territory must begin.

“The Security Council’s resolutions, which require unconditional and immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops from our territory are not applied by Armenia. This is a brutal violation of international law. Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of recognized Azerbaijan”, as the Azerbaijani president has defended time and again.

“My last meeting with the Armenian president was more optimistic than the previous one after a long period of stagnation in the negotiation process because Armenia was not willing to negotiate”, he underscored. Nagorno-Karabakh, whose capital is Stepanakert, is a de facto independent presidentialist republic  of Azerbaijan located in the region of Transcaucasia which controls most of the region of Nagorno-Karabakh and other Azerbaijan bordering on the west with Armenia and to the south with Iran.

A little before the fall of the former Soviet Union, the region was involved in a deplorable dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan that erupted into a great ethnic and military conflict between 1991 and 1994.

On December 10, 1991, during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, the region proclaimed itself an independent republic. However, it has not been recognized by any sovereign United Nations member state, whereby the Organization of Unrepresented United Nations (UUN) reiterates this republic’s right to proclaim its sovereignty. Today in Stepanakert, there are five permanent missions and a socio-political information office in France. There are also permanent missions in Armenia, Australia, Germany, Russia and the United States, and the one serving Middle Eastern countries headquartered in Beirut. All of them focus on disclosing the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh’s position on several issues, providing information and facilitating the peace process.