Ukraine supports OSCE Minsk Group’s efforts towards the peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict

Ukraine supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group towards the peaceful resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, OSCE Chairman and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
The Minister spoke about the issues that Ukraine will prioritize during its chairmanship of the OSCE regarding politico-military, economic, enviromental and humanitarian affairs.

He stressed that the most important task on Ukraine's agenda is to achieve progress in resolving conflicts in the OSCE area, the Azerbaijani Permanent Mission to the United Nations told Trend.

Touching upon the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, Leonid Kozhara stressed that Ukraine's chairmanship of the OSCE supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group to resolve the conflict peacefully.

He will call for more active negotiations during a visit to the South Caucasus region in June.
He said that the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the surrounding territories are under Armenian occupation. He emphasized that resolutions 822, 853, 874 adopted by the Security Council in 1993 recognize that military force was used against Azerbaijan and a serious violation of international law occurred.

He regretted that the main requirements of the Security Council have not been implemented yet and the efforts of more than twenty years of mediation within the OSCE have given no results.

Armenia's attempts to belittle the importance of the Security Council's resolutions and distort the rules and principles of international law, as well as its unreal aggressive claims pose a threat to the conflict resolution process. These threats are dangerous to international and regional peace and security. Moreover, Armenia is constantly taking measures to further entrench its occupation and hamper more than 700,000 Azerbaijani IDPs in the quest to return home.

Illegal activity such as the resettlement of Syrian Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh as well as in other occupied territories of Azerbaijan and flights to these areas are clear examples of Armenia's colonization of Azerbaijani lands.
He said that Azerbaijan will never make concessions on its territorial integrity and the freedom and rights of its citizens.