Deutsche Presse-Agentur
January 25, 2005, Tuesday
12:31:34 Central European Time

COE parliament calls for resolution of Nagorny Karabakh crisis

Strasbourg

Eleven years after a ceasefire was declared in the disputed region of
Nagorny Karabakh the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe
(COE) called Tuesday on the parties to the conflict, Armenia and
Azerbaijan, to reach a political solution.

The parliamentary assembly passed a resolution stating that the
conflict in the Armenian enclave has not been resolved and calling on
Armenia and Azerbaijan to commence talks to do so.

The resolution said that the admittance of the two Central Asian
countries to the Council of Europe in 2001 obliged them to find a
peaceful solution and it confirmed the right of return for people
displaced from their homeland by the crisis.

Nagorny Karabakh, a 4,400-square-kilometre part of Azerbaijan, is
mostly populated by Armenians. A 1992-1994 war saw 750,000
Azerbaijanis flee their homes. A ceasefire was agreed in May 1994 and
Armenia continues to control the disputed region.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe groups 630
parliamentarians from 46 national parliaments. dpa hs pmc