Original report
27 September 2008
UN News Centre, New York

27 September 2008 - Top officials of Azerbaijan and Armenia have offered their views on the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan at the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate this week.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister today noted that earlier this year, the Assembly adopted a resolution which reaffirmed the body’s “continued respect and support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders.”

That document also “demanded withdrawal of Armenian forces from all the occupied territories” of his country, Elmar Mammadyarov said.

“The soonest resolution of the armed conflict in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan remains a primary task for us,” he said, with principles laid out in the resolution forming the basis of negotiations with Armenia.

Addressing the General Debate on Thursday, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan pointed out that that document was adopted with “only 39 States out of 146 voting ‘for’.” He said that Armenia does not “insist on and actually [opposes] the idea that each claim for self-determination should be through secession. However, we witness that that outcome more often than not becomes the solution for the conflicts.”

A solution to the issue must be supported by all parties involved, Mr. Sargsyan said, stressing the importance of active negotiations with Azerbaijan under the framework of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).