The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry is to step up diplomacy in 2011 to bring pressure to bear on Armenia over the Karabakh conflict.
This year Azerbaijani diplomats will raise the occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenian armed forces at all international forums without exception, Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov told Novosti-Azerbaijan.
"The aim of Azerbaijani diplomacy is the rapid and bloodless liberation of Karabakh from the Armenian occupiers. To attain this goal, Azerbaijan does not intend to make exceptions in the choice of peaceful ways," he said.
The Foreign Ministry's job is to use all possible international forums to convince Armenia and the international community of the need for strict compliance with international law in ensuring the territorial integrity of states, Polukhov said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims on the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian armed forces occupied a swathe of Azerbaijani territory from 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. Despite a ceasefire in 1994, no long-term peace agreement has been reached.
The nub of the conflict remains unresolved - the competing claims of territorial integrity, which Azerbaijan insists takes precedence in the case of Karabakh, and self-determination, which Armenia wants to see for the Armenians of Karabakh.
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