SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, October 10. Time has come to focus all efforts on lasting peace in the South Caucasus, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, TurkicWorld reports.
He made the remark at the 27th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization's (ECO) participating countries under Azerbaijan's chairmanship in Shusha city.
"We hail our Azerbaijani brothers for putting an end to a thirty-year occupation and eliminating historical injustice. Now is the time to focus all efforts on lasting peace, stability, and security in the South Caucasus, which constitutes the strategic core of the ECO geography," the minister noted.
Fidan emphasized the need to generate a certain momentum in light of the new dynamics in the South Caucasus and to transform the Zangazur Corridor for the benefit of all ECO members.
Proposed by the Azerbaijani side, the Zangazur corridor aims to establish a transportation link between Azerbaijan's mainland and its exclave, Nakhchivan, passing through Armenian territory. This corridor emerged as part of the above-mentioned trilateral statement signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war.
One point of the agreement outlined Armenia's commitment to ensuring the security of transport connections to Nakhchivan, facilitating the unrestricted movement of people, vehicles, and goods in both directions.
In order to ensure the provisions of the Trilateral Statement, suppression of large-scale provocations in Azerbaijan's Karabakh economic region, disarmament, and withdrawal of Armenian armed forces formations from the territories of Azerbaijan, localized anti-terrorist activities were carried out in the region.
Taking into account the appeal of the representatives of the Armenian population of Karabakh through the Russian peacekeeping contingent [temporarily stationed in Azerbaijan under the trilateral statement], an agreement was reached on September 20, 2023, at 13:00 (GMT+4) to cease anti-terrorist activities of a local nature under the following conditions: the formations of the armed forces of Armenia, Armenian illegal armed formations located in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region, lay down their weapons, leave their combat positions and military posts, and completely disarm; the formations of the armed forces of Armenia leave the territory of Azerbaijan; Armenian illegal armed groups are dissolved.
