There is no such concept as "Nagorno-Karabakh people", only the population of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, Head of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan Tural Ganjaliyev said.

Ganjaliyev was commenting on the online meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers with the participation of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and special representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office, Trend reports on July 1.

The head of the Azerbaijani community reminded that the current situation on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was discussed at the meeting.

"During the meeting, while trying to distort the essence of the conflict, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan introduced the Armenian community of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as "nation",” Ganjaliyev added.

“As the head of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, I state that there is no such concept as "Nagorno-Karabakh people", only the population of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, consisting of Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the region,” the head of the Azerbaijani community added.

“I would like to remind that during one of the recent visits to Baku, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov used such a concept as "the population of Nagorno-Karabakh" which is a significant response to the Armenian side," the head of the community said.

Ganjaliyev stressed that Armenia and Azerbaijan are parties to the conflict, the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan are the interested parties to the conflict, as it was stressed in the final document of the Helsinki Summit of the CSCE (now the OSCE), held in March 1992.

"The attempt of the Armenian foreign minister to distort the format of the conflict is another indicator of Armenia’s position and that it is designed to drag out the process of achieving the final peace,” the head of the Azerbaijani community said. “I reiterate that the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan may peacefully coexist within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan."

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.