FO refutes reports Pak Army fighting alongside Azerbaijan
FO refutes reports Pak Army fighting alongside Azerbaijan. Foreign Office has refuted media reports claiming the Pakistani army fighting alongside Azerbaijani forces against Armenia. FO refutes reports Pak Army fighting alongside Azerbaijan.
“The reports are speculative and baseless”, Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said while answering queries of the media.
Reiterating Pakistan’s position on the issue, he said Pakistan is deeply concerned about the deteriorating security situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The spokesperson said the intensive shelling by Armenian forces on civilian populations of Azerbaijan is reprehensible and most unfortunate. This could compromise the peace and security of the entire region.
He said Armenia must stop its military action to avoid further escalation.
The spokesperson said Pakistan supports Azerbaijan’s position on Nagorno-Karabakh, which is in line with the several unanimously adopted United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Dozens of people have been reported killed and hundreds wounded since Sunday in fighting that has renewed concern about stability in the South Caucasus, a corridor for pipelines carrying oil and gas to world markets.
Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan in a 1991-94 war that killed 30,000 people but is not recognized internationally as an independent republic.
Nagorno-Karabakh has said 103 of its servicemen have been killed and more than 200 wounded but has given no figures on civilian casualties.
France, Russia, and the United States are co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group, set up in 1992 to mediate in the decades-old conflict over the mountainous enclave.
They appealed for peace as the death toll rose in the heaviest clashes since the 1990s around Nagorno-Karabakh – part of Azerbaijan, but run by its mostly ethnic Armenian inhabitants.
“We call for an immediate cessation of hostilities between the relevant military forces,” the joint French, Russian, and U.S. statement said.
They urged the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan to “commit without delay to resuming substantive negotiations, in good faith and without preconditions” under what is called the Minsk process.
But in a speech to the Turkish parliament just before the three countries’ statement, President Tayyip Erdogan said he opposed their involvement.
“Given that the USA, Russia, and France have neglected this problem for nearly 30 years, it is unacceptable that they are involved in a search for a ceasefire,” Erdogan said.
He said a lasting ceasefire could be achieved only if “Armenian occupiers” withdrew from Nagorno-Karabakh.
