PACE PRESIDENT: NAGORNO-KARABAKH SUB-COMMITTEE MAY PLAY ACTIVE ROLE IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Trend
Jan 25 2010
Azerbaijan

Nagorno-Karabakh’s sub-committee activities must be revived, Luis
Maria de Puig, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE), said.

"We tried to harmonize the positions of the two countries," she said
at PACE’s first winter session conference.

"I rule out armed solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is
also PACE’s position. The conflict should be settled through peaceful
ways. We must move forward through dialogues. The new PACE president
will continue this activities," the PACE president said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the
occupied territories.

In 2010, Luis Maria de Puig’s mandate as PACE president ended. Turkish
MP Movlud Cavushoglu was elected as the new PACE president.