COE SECRETARY GENERAL URGES TO INVESTIGATE NAGORNO-KARABAKH SOURCES

Trend News Agency
Jan 26 2009
Azerbaijan

France, Strasburg, Jan. 26 /Trend News, A.Maharramli/ "Sources of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be investigated and its causes must
be eliminated. The Council of Europe pays great attention to the South
Caucasus," Council of Europe (CoE) Secretary General Terry Davis said
on Jan. 26. He commented to the Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation,
participating in the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe, on what mechanisms the Council of Europe can
involve to protect the rights of hundreds of Azerbaijani refugees and
IDPs, whose rights were violated as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. Today, the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe started in Strasbourg.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan
lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December
1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7
districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed
a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia,
France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Davis said that in any conflict, including Nagorno-Karabakh, the source
should be found and the causes combated. "This is a "triangular"
or tripartite conflict. I always said at the meetings between the
Presidents or Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan that the
negotiations should be conducted within the OSCE Minsk Group. We
support the efforts of the Minsk Group and cannot replace them. We
must go forward," he said. According to Davis, human rights are the
fundamental principle of the CE. "Indeed, in Azerbaijan and in Armenia
there are hundreds of refugees and IDPs. At a meeting with President
Ilham Aliyev during my last visit to Baku in December, I felt a
progress and hope in resolving the conflict. I hope this conflict
will be resolved before the end of my term of office," he said.