AZERBAIJAN TO DEMAND EXPLANATION FROM COUNTRIES VOTING AGAINST RESOLUTION

TREND News Agency
April 9 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 9 April / corr TrendNews I.Alizade / Azerbaijan will
submit an issue on situation around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to
agenda of the spring session of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
Europe (PACE).

"The Azerbaijani delegation will demand clarification from the
countries which came out against or abstained during the voting for
the ‘Resolution on situation in the occupied territory of Azerbaijan’
at the UN General Assembly," MP Gultakin Hajiyeva, the deputy chairman
of Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE, said in talks with journalists
on 9 April.

On 14 March the UN General Assembly supported the ‘Resolution on
Situation in Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan’, which was presented
by the Azerbaijani side. Most CE member-countries abstained from
voting. Furthermore, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, the United States,
Russia and France voted against the Resolution. Some 39 countries
voted for and seven countries against the resolution and 100 members
abstained from voting.

The resolution requires an immediate, complete and unconditional
withdrawal of all Armenian Armed Forces from the occupied territories
of Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, Baku sent an inquiry to OSCE to receive information about
replacement of co-chairing countries, or the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs
themselves. Azerbaijan also protested to India, which voted against
the resolution.

Hajiyeva said that Azerbaijani delegation will inform the PACE about
the essence of the Resolution at the UN.

PACE spring session will be held in Strasbourg from 14 to 18 April.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful
negotiations.