STEPANAKERT—The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s Foreign Ministry on Friday issued an announcement in which it condemned Azerbaijan’s illegal practice of settling the region of Shahumian and Getashen, whose Armenian residents were savagely deported by Azeri forces during the Karabakh war and remains an occupied territory by Azerbaijan.
The Foreign Ministry’s announcement came in response to a complaint filed by Azerbaijan with the OSCE, claiming that Armenians were resettling within the territoriy of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
The foreign ministry called Baku’s appeal to the OSCE an effort to destabilize the region and further impede the peace process.
“Despite the obvious reality that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has a sovereign right to accept any individual on its territory, the misinformation carried out by Azerbaijan is absolutely groundless since the monitoring of the situation in these territories, carried out by the OSCE Assessment Mission in 2010, can prove otherwise,” said the Karabakh foreign ministry statement.
Official Stepanakert also pointed to a statement by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen, who found no signs “any clear organized resettlement” and “did not determine that the resettlement resulted from a deliberate policy”.
“In this context, we consider it necessary to once again draw the attention of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe to the fact that Azerbaijan continues a policy of resettlement in the Shahumian region, Getashen sub-region and other Nagorno-Karabakh Republic regions that are under the occupation of Azerbaijan,” said the Foreign Ministry. The ministry also emphasized that Azerbaijan, over the years, has refused to cooperate and provide access to OSCE monitors.
Getashen and Shahumian are still occupied and we have absolutely to liberate them