EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION CALLS UPON EU PRESIDENCY AND ALL COUNTRIES
MEMBERS TO BLOCK AZERBAIJANI-SPONSORED UN RESOLUTION

BRUSSELS, November 25 (Noyan Tapan). The European Armenian
Federation for Justice and Democracy calls upon the European Union
Presidency and all countries members of the European Union to block
the Azerbaijani-sponsored UN resolution in the name of peace and
stability in this sensitive region.

Azerbaijan introduced a resolution asking the United Nations General
Assembly to condemn the so-called Armenian colony created in the
territories under Armenian control.

“The UN resolution submitted by Azerbaijan and Turkey, coupled with
another current initiative being taken up at the Council of Europe,
are both deadly blows to the negociation process initiated by the
Minsk Group” declared Hilda Tchoboian, Chairperson of the European
Armenian Federation.

Over the past several years, Azerbaijan has rejected a number of
proposals put forward by the OSCE Minsk group including the “Common
State” option in 1998. Former President Heider Aliyev walked away
from commitments made in Paris and the Key West summits during talks
with Armenian President Robert Kocharian.

The European Armenian Federation notes that since assuming power,
the current Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliev, has continuously
discredited the OSCE process, threatening to resolve the Karabagh
issue militarily.

The European Armenian Federation remains concerned that the
disintegration of the Minsk peace process will exclude Europe of any
active role in the South Caucasus, at a time when the European Union
has just included this region in its new neighborhood policy. It
affirms that the end of the process could introduce a new period of
instability in the region.

The European Armenian Federation notes that France joined the
Presidency of the Minsk Group in 1997 to establish peace, but also
with the intention of representing Europe, which did not have great
influence in the region until that time. “It balanced the Russian
and American interests in the region,” explained Tchoboian.