Public Television of Armenia
May 21 2010
Armenian minister slams European body’s resolution on Karabakh – state TV
Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan has slammed 20 May
resolution of the European Parliament, which called for withdrawal of
Armenian troops from "occupied Azerbaijani territories".
"Provisions contained in the [European Parliament’s] report
[resolution on the South Caucasus], pertaining to Nagornyy Karabakh
are not in accordance with either the Madrid principles [of the
Karabakh settlement], the L’Aquila statement [statement of presidents
of countries that co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group], or the Moscow
[Meindorf] declaration, which is mentioned in the report itself,"
Nalbandyan told the news conference.
The European Parliament adopted resolution number 2216 on 20 May
demanding the "withdrawal of Armenian forces from all occupied
territories of Azerbaijan, accompanied by deployment of international
forces, to be organized in accordance with the UN Charter in order to
provide the necessary security guarantees during the period of
transition. This will ensure the security of the population of
Nagorno-Karabakh and allow the displaced persons to return to their
homes", the official website of the European Parliament said on 20
May.
The Armenian foreign minister said the resolution contradicted the
EU’s position on the issue: "There is an obvious mess of the
formulations, and I believe one of the reasons is that the author of
the report had never been to Karabakh and to the region at the time of
writing that report and had not consulted with even the representative
of France, which is an EU member and a co-chair in the OSCE Minsk
Group. For this reason some of these provisions contradict the EU’s
position as well. This position [EU’s position] was expressed on
numerous occasions; the EU’s position was expressed in a quite
extensive statement in December 2009 in Athens and this position is
also fully in accordance with Armenia’s position", Nalbandyan said at
the news conference.