NATO PA COMMITTEE APPROVES REPORT ON GARABAGH CONFLICT

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Sept 29 2005

NATO Parliamentary Assembly committee on the civil dimension of
security has approved a report on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper
Garabagh conflict.

All the recommendations made by Azerbaijan were included in the first
draft of the document, prepared by German parliamentarian Von Heden.

The report also indicates that Azerbaijan’s territories have been
occupied by Armenia, parliament vice-speaker and head of the Azeri
delegation at NATO PA Ziyafat Asgarov said.

Asgarov told journalists that the Azerbaijani party was earlier
discontent with the first draft, which erroneously said that not 20%,
but 16% of Azeri land is under occupation and that more Armenians
than Azerbaijanis used to live in the conflict zone. “The Azerbaijani
delegation aims to achieve approval of the report by NATO PA as well.

I have discussed this with the Assembly leadership. We stressed that
NATO PA should act the same way the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE) did,” the vice-speaker said. PACE passed
a resolution late in January confirming that Armenia occupies Azeri
territories.