Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement to continue to be discussed in PACE
By Rashid Shirinov
The settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will continue to be discussed in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliamentary Committee on International and Inter-Parliamentary Relations Samad Seyidov told Trend on April 11.
He noted that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a big tangle of problems, and discussions on this issue have never stopped.
“There are two types of discussions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. One of them is direct discussions on the conflict, which are conducted in the OSCE. But there are so-called indirect discussions related to refugee problems, humanitarian aspects, issues of the Sarsang reservoir and access to water,” Samadov noted.
He said all these problems are connected with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and they were, are and will be discussed at PACE meetings.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, 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.
While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.
Until now, Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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