NATO Secretary General: "There is no military solution to Karabakh conflict"

• Friday, September 7, 19:43

 "The region still faces great security challenges:And the most pressing regional challenge remains finding a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in his speech at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, in Baku, Azerbaijan, Firday, NATO official website reports.

"Two things are clear.  First, that there is no military solution.  And second, the only way forward is through dialogue, compromise, and cooperation," Rasmussen said.

"As I also said in Yerevan yesterday, I am deeply concerned by the Azerbaijani decision to pardon Ramil Safarov. The act he committed in 2004 was a crime which should not be glorified, as this damages trust and does not contribute to the peace process.  There must be no return to conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.  Tensions in this region must be reduced, and concrete steps must be taken to promote regional cooperation and reconciliation," the Secretary General said.

He said that Azerbaijan is an important partner for NATO.  And NATO will continue to be an important partner for Azerbaijan.

To recall, on August 31 the Armenian authorities adopted a decision to suspend diplomatic relations and official contacts with Hungary after the Hungarian authorities extradited Azeri officer Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced by a Hungarian court to life in jail for killing sleeping Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan with an axe in Budapest in 2004. Both the officers were undergoing an English language course under the NATO PfP program. The same day after Safarov's extradition, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev decreed to pardon and reward the criminal.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out on February 28 1988 in the Azerbaijani Sumgait with massacre of Armenians as a peculiar response of Azerbaijanis to the peaceful demand of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous Region, part of the Azerbaijani SSR, to unite with the Armenian SSR. This resulted in other pogroms of Armenians in Baku, Kirovabad and other regions of Azerbaijan populated with Armenians.  In 1991  Azerbaijan unleashed war against peaceful populations of Nagorno-Karabakh, expulsing ethnic Armenians from the territory of Azerbaijan. Dozens of thousands of peaceful residents on both parties were killed in the military actions, and hundreds of thousands were left homeless and have become refugees. In 1994 in Bishkek in
mediation of the OSCE MG, the NKR, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Protocol on Ceasefire that is observed more or less so far.