European lawmaker urges to ensure Azerbaijan’s integrity
By Sara Rajabova
The UN Security Council's decisions are regulated by international law and it is still unclear why the demand for a withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan has been unfulfilled for 20 years, European Parliament member Korina Kretu has said.
"Besides, the negotiations initiated by the OSCE have been repeatedly suspended," Kretu said, responding to an inquiry by the European Azerbaijan Society concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
She called on the Armenian people to define their future within the framework of international law.
"The Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their own territories. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan should be fully ensured. Azerbaijan's demands are absolutely fair," the MEP noted.
Kretu reminded that Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule announced in Baku in May 2013 that the EU is interested in expanding relations with Azerbaijan beyond the Eastern Partnership.
"Future prospects of Azerbaijani-European cooperation are encouraging and both sides should use this opportunity. For this purpose stability and security should be provided in the South Caucasus. Only this way can the Nagorno-Karabakh problem be solved," she said.
Kretu emphasized that Europe's interests in the South Caucasus dwell upon the policy of peace and stability.
"All European organizations share a single viewpoint in this regard. So the negotiations are underway concerning membership agreements. Stefan Fule, while in Baku, said that the people of Azerbaijan and Europe should strengthen ties within the Eastern Partnership. And the stability of the political situation is required for this. But the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict contradicts this, causing tension in the entire region."
According to Kretu, the EU should step up its role in the negotiating process.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.
The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory have not been enforced to this day.
Peace talks aimed at resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.