"PACE SUBCOMMITTEE ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH NOT TO MEET" – AZERBAIJANI PACE DELEGATION’S HEAD

Trend News Agency
June 23 2008
Azerbaijan

France, Strasburg, 23 June /Trend News corr A. Maharramli/
Representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia are not expected to meet
at the Council of Europe’s Subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh before
the presidential elections to take place in Azerbaijan this October.

"A meeting is unlikely to take place at the moment, especially on the
threshold of presidential elections in Azerbaijan," Samad Seyidov,
head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, said to journalist in
Strasburg on 23 June.

According to Seyidov, the stuff of the Subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh
has not yet been approved. " Azerbaijan sent letters in this
regard. Armenian part of the Committee has not yet been formed due
to the processes going on in the country," Seyidov said, adding that
Azerbaijani delegation always keeps Nagorno-Karabakh issue on agenda.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in
1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan
lost the Nagorno-Karabakh, except of Shusha and Khojali, in December
1991. In 1992-93, Armenian Armed Forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and
Nagorno-Karabakh’s seven surrounding regions. 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, but fruitless
negotiations.

The summer session of the Parliamentary Committee of the Council
of Europe will be taking place from 23 to 27 June. Discussions on
Azerbaijan will take place on 24 June and on Armenia on 25 June.