AZERBAIJAN SUBMITS OFFICIAL POSITION ON PACE CO-RAPPORTEUR’S VISIT TO REGION IN STRASBURG – AMBASSADOR

Trend News Agency
Jan 23 2008
Azerbaijan

France, Strasburg, 23 January / Trend corr. A.Maharramli/ The position
of Official Baku on the visit of Edward O’Hara, the PACE co-rapporteur
to the Nagorno-Karabakh, in order to study the cultural heritage in the
South Caucasus, was disclosed during the meeting of the parliamentary
delegations of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Strasburg on 23 January,
MP Arif Mammadov, the head of the Azerbaijani representative at the
Council of Europe, reported Trend.

Edward O’Hara, the British MP’s had been planning to visit Armenia
and Azerbaijan, since summer 2006. The visit was postponed due to the
disagreement of the route of the visit to the Azerbaijani occupied
territories. Azerbaijan stated about the possibility of the visit
by PACE co-Rapporteur to Nagorno-Karabakh only via the Azerbaijani
territory.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called on the representatives
of international community, not to pay visit to the Azerbaijani
occupied territories through the territory of Armenia. However,
still the representatives of the international organizations visited
Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan
via Armenia.

During the meeting the Armenian representatives stated that in spite
of the conflict, the study of the cultural heritage of the region is
necessary. The meeting was attended by the heads of the Azerbaijani
and Armenian parliamentary delegations to PACE, Samas Seyidov and
Ovanes Ovenasyan, as well as Kristtofer Greyson, the chairman of the
Council of Europe, and Arif Mammadov, the Ambassador.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988, due to the Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

Since 1992, the Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven neighbouring
districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire
agreement which ended the active hostilities. The Co-Chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding
the peaceful negotiations.

In January 2005, PACE passed a resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict which reflects the fact of occupation of the Azerbaijani
territories by Armenia and proposes a peaceful settlement of the
problem.