BAKU. May 23 (Interfax) - The withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azeri lands will resolve the problem of the withdrawal of Azeri snipers from the contact line, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists on Friday.
"The Armenians are claiming that the snipers must be pulled out. This is ridiculous. It is not that the snipers at the contact line are to be pulled out for no particular reason. The principal issue is the occupation of Azeri territory by Armenian armed forces," Mammadyarov said.
Azerbaijan insists first on the liberation of the Agdam and Fizuli districts by signing a peace agreement, he said.
"We should win gradual liberation of our lands from Armenian forces in line with an endorsed timeline. We should probably start with Agdam and Fizuli. This is our position," Mammadyarov said.
An alternative proposal envisions the simultaneous liberation of five Azeri districts, Mammadyarov said. "There are a lot of proposals and agreed-upon points," he added.
The conflict between Baku and Yerevan erupted at the end of the 1980s after Armenia made claims on Azeri territory. In an ensuing war, which lasted until May 1994, Armenia occupied not only Nagorno-Karabakh itself, but also seven Azeri districts around it.
The conflict turned some one million Azeris into refugees and forced migrants. During the armed clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts, the UN Security Council passed four resolutions demanding that Armenia unconditionally free the occupied Azeri territories.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are currently holding negotiations on settling the conflict with mediation from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (Russia, France, and the United States).
Nagorno-Karabakh's status still remains a stumbling block in the talks. In their efforts, the mediators are trying to reconcile two key principles of international law, i.e. the principle of territorial integrity, on which Baku insists, and the right of nations to self-determination, which Yerevan is referring to.