Azerbaijan cannot enter the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) until the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu said in an interview to Russia 24 TV channel.
“Our country has more than a million refugees, 20 percent of our territories have been occupied,” the ambassador said. “Having such a territorial conflict, we cannot be in the same league with the aggressor country and address any issues with this side.”
He said that this issue can be raised only after the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The members of the Eurasian Economic Union are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation. Its purpose is to carry out a coordinated economic policy and create a zone of free movement of goods, services, capital and labor. Treaty on the establishing the union was signed May 29, 2014 in Astana and entered into force January 1, 2015.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council’s four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
/Trend/
