Switzerland says illegal elections held in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh null and void [PHOTO]
By Akbar Mammadov
The Foreign Ministry of Switzerland has said that the country considers the so-called "elections" null and void, which were held in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region on April 14, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's Spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva said on her Twitter page on April 15.
"Switzerland reiterated its full support to sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Reacting to the illegal “elections” in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Swiss MFA in its Note Verbal stated that it considers these “elections” null and void," Abdullayeva said.
A number of other countries, including France, Germany, Turkey, UK, Canada, Australia, Norway, Pakistan, Latvia, Ukraine, Estonia, as well as major international organizations such as the EU, NATO, OSCE, OIC, GUAM, Visegrad Group, TURKPA have recently reiterated their support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and condemned the illegal elections held in in Karabakh on March 31.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97
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