BAKU, September 30. /TASS/. Calls for dialogue with Armenia amid rising tensions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region are inappropriate, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said at a meeting with wounded military servicemen at a military hospital in the country’s capital of Baku on Wednesday.
"As we know, there is an international mechanism for talks. Unfortunately, this mechanism has failed to achieve results. This is why I believe that in the current situation, calls for dialogue are inappropriate," Aliyev pointed out.
Azerbaijan’s president stressed that the country took for granted calls for dialogue from the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). "The reason is that the OSCE has a mandate. But if someone says: launch dialogue and we will help you - there is no need for that," Aliyev said. He added that Azerbaijan "will never forget the countries and organizations that supported us on these days."
Tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia escalated on September 27. Fighting is underway in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku and Yerevan have introduced martial law and mobilization. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, including civilian casualties. Baku claims to have taken control of several villages and strategic heights in Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan reports shelling of its territory.
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.