OSCE PA President: Protracted conflicts in OSCE area – top priority for 2018
By Rashid Shirinov
The protracted conflicts in the OSCE area are among top priorities of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in 2018, said George Tsereteli, President of the OSCE PA.
He made the remark when addressing the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on January 25.
Tsereteli said that migration, fighting terrorism and protracted conflicts are top priorities of the PA for 2018.
He also noted that the PA will not spare efforts to support the work of the Italian OSCE Chairmanship and OSCE delegations.
The Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the conflicts in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine are the protracted conflicts that caused much suffering, displacement and destruction in the OSCE area. Obviously, these conflicts must be solved through political means and not by military force.
However, the leadership of Armenia still continues its policy not to let the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict be resolved peacefully. Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on the country. 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. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
To this day, Armenia has not implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.