Baku, October 16, AZERTAC Member of House of Lords of the UK Parliament Lord Malcolm Bruce has sent a letter to Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the country Dominic Raab. In his letter, Lord Malcolm Bruce has expressed his concern over the escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, urging the UK Government to cooperate with the international community in seeking a resolution to the problem.“The territory, often described in the media as “disputed” is an integral part of Azerbaijan. The ceasefire was reached after two weeks of heavy fighting over Nagorno Karabakh — a territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan where Armenians lived with the Azerbaijanis until 1988, when local Armenians instigated by Armenian nationalists, started voicing demands for its unification with the Republic of Armenia. In 1991 the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh illegally agreed to the creation of an independent state of Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of which heavy clashes between the Azerbaijanis and Armenians started, leaving hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons,” the letter said.“Although Armenia supports the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh it recognises the territory as part of Azerbaijan. Despite the four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council demanding, among other things, the immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding occupied territories, the situation had remained unchanged for almost 26 years. It is very sad and troubling that after the humanitarian ceasefire was agreed between Azerbaijan and Armenia on 10 October to allow both sides to exchange prisoners and corpses, the second biggest city of Azerbaijan, Ganja, and several other Azerbaijani cities which are completely outside of the conflict zone were under Armenia’s missile attack on 11 October. Civilians, among which there were children, were killed and injured,” the UK MP underlined. “Noting that it is surely time for a resolution which recognises the integrity of Azerbaijan while protecting the Armenian minority Lord Malcolm Bruce said: “An internationally negotiated ceasefire only perpetuates the conflict. From my experience of working in and with Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis, I can confidently say that Azerbaijan is a secular state with very peaceful and tolerant people. To this day, many ethnic minorities co-exist in Azerbaijan, including Lezgins, Talysh, Kurds, Russians and Jews. Indeed, Azerbaijan is one of the few Muslim nations that is still home to a sizeable Jewish community, where Jews have co- existed with Azeri Muslims for centuries without any disputes or concerns.”“I urge the UK Government to use its influence to move to secure a permanent ceasefire and a peace process to restore the integrity of Azerbaijan in accordance with the expressed UN resolutions,” Lord Malcolm Bruce emphasized.