BAKU, October 24 (Itar-Tass) —— Azerbaijan will use every opportunity for an early fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of norms of international law, President Ilham Aliyev told here on Monday the enlarged meeting of the government devoted to the results of the country’s social and economic development in the year to October.
The head of state regretted lack of progress toward the settlement of the conflict. “Azerbaijan has the stand of principle that rests on historic truth and norms of international law and we will not budge an inch from that stand. Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity has not been the matter of the talks and will never be. We will try to use every opportunity to restore the country’s territorial integrity,” Ilham Aliyev said.
The president stressed that despite the lack of results in the negotiating process, the thoughts the mediators voiced in the recent months inspire “certain hopes, for instance, the opinion that the status quo should not be preserved. “The status quo should be changed, which, naturally, requires the withdrawal of occupation forces from Azerbaijani lands. This is the way to the settlement of the conflict,” President Aliyev said.
Azerbaijan’s president met in Baku on Monday with the co-chairmen of the Minsk Group of the OSCE on Nagorno-Karabakh. The details are not revealed. The report circulated by official channels says the meeting discussed questions related to the present state of and prospects for the talks on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.