Azerbaijan`s Minister of Defense Zakir Hasanov, who is on a working visit to the Russian Federation, has attended a regular meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the participating countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Moscow.

Addressing the meeting, Minister Zakir Hasanov drew the meeting participants’ attention to the long-lasting Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as a result of which more than a million of Azerbaijanis have become refugees and internally displaced persons.

Minister Hasanov stressed that the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories by a CIS member state contradicts the norms and principles of international law, including the norms and spirit of this Commonwealth.

Noting that the large-scale provocation committed by Armenia in the direction of the Tovuz region on the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border poses a threat to regional security, Zakir Hasanov also emphasized that official Yerevan aims to harm relations between Azerbaijan and the CIS member states.

Following the meeting, the participants have signed a joint statement in connection with the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War and the end of World War II.

The defense ministers who signed the statement commented on a number of issues, reaffirming their commitment to the goals and principles of the UN, the norms of international law, in particular the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.