AZERBAIJANI, EU OFFICIALS DISCUSS NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Jan 15 2015
15 January 2015, 12:04 (GMT+04:00)
By Sara Rajabova
Finding a solution to the decades-old Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was
the main topic of discussion during a meeting of Azerbaijani foreign
policy head and European Union official.
Elmar Mammadyarov and Herbert Salber, EU Special Representative for
the South Caucasus exchanged view on the negotiation process towards
the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which emerged in
1988 after Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan, during
their meeting on January 14, Foreign Ministry said.
Referring to Armenia’s actions to destabilize the situation in the
region and to resort to the sabotage, Mammadyarov said first and
foremost, the Armenian armed forces must withdraw from the occupied
territories of Azerbaijan for peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally
recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent
regions in the early 1990s. As a result of the military aggression
of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported
missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.
Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in
1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN
Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional
withdrawal.Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators
have been largely fruitless so far.
Mammadyarov and Salber further discussed the issues connected with
the further promotion of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU.
The strategic partnership in the energy sphere between Azerbaijan
and the EU, the prospects for development of bilateral cooperation
were also discussed during the meeting.
Salber emphasized Azerbaijan’s important role in energy security
of Europe.
On the same day, Salber met with Colonel-General Zakir
Hasanov,Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister. During the meeting, the
sidesfocused on the military-political situation in the region,
as well as the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Earlier in the day, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received Salber,
who is on a three-day visit to Azerbaijan to meet with the officials
of the country.The sides widely discussed the issues related to
settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
President Aliyev expressed Azerbaijan’s interest in the fast settlement
of the conflict, adding the country spares no efforts towards
liberating its internationally recognized lands from occupation.
The EU and Azerbaijan are maintaining relations under the Partnership
and Cooperation Agreement, which was signed in 1996 and came into
force in 1999.
PCA has provided the legal framework for bilateral relations in the
areas of political dialogue, trade, investment, economic, legislative
and cultural cooperation.
Azerbaijan is also included in the EU program on “Eastern Partnership”
adopted on the initiative of Poland and Sweden and approved at the
EU summit in Brussels in 2008.
European Parliament in 2013 adopted a resolution which confirmed that
Armenian troops have occupied Azerbaijani territories and called for
resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of UN Security
Council resolutions and the L’Aquila statement of the mediating
countries’ leaders in 2009.
According to changes to the resolution, the European parliament
recalled its position that the occupation of the territory of an
Eastern Partnership member by another member state violates the
fundamental principles and objectives of the EU program.