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EU attaches importance to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution

24 October 2014 12:20 (UTC+04:00)
EU attaches importance to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution

By Sara Rajabova

The European Union attaches a particular importance to finding a solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Herbert Salber made the remark a meeting with Chairman of "Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh" Public Union Bayram Safarov in Baku on October 23, AzerTag news agency reported.

"Settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is very important for the European Union," Salber said, noting that the EU backs an immediate and peaceful settlement of the dispute.

Safarov, for his part, expressed regret that "international organizations have taken a double standard approach towards Azerbaijan's problem."

"Unfortunately, the organizations which must show a resolute position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have remained silent and taken a double standard approach towards it," he noted.

Safarov said the conflict must be settled only in compliance with international legal norms and within Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity.

"So we expect the European Union and other international organizations to show their determination in his regard. Azerbaijan supports peace and we want peace in Azerbaijan, in the South Caucasus and the whole world," Safarov said.

He also stressed the need for close involvement of the European Union in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"Building an EU-supported dialogue between the communities, ensuring active participation of the parties in programs and projects of the organization is important in terms of solving the conflict," Safarov added.

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.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far. Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.

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