Azernews.Az

An Italian parliament member has called for a swift settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh to restore peace and stability in the region.

Senator Rossana Boldi, who heads an Italian parliamentary delegation on a visit to Baku, in a meeting with Azerbaijani MPs on Friday, also said the Karabakh conflict is frequently discussed in her country’s parliament.

Boldi praised Azerbaijan’s important role in promoting peace and stability in the South Caucasus.

The senator also stressed the developing relations between Italy and Azerbaijan.

During the meeting with the Italian lawmakers, co-chair of the Milli Majlis taskforce on Azerbaijani-Italian relations, Azer Karimli, said Azerbaijan appreciates the passage in the Italian parliament of a resolution on the situation in the South Caucasus, particularly the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Karimli voiced hope that a second such document would be adopted in the Italian legislature.

The resolution, passed in the Italian Senate in February 2010, supported Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. It said that given the important geo-political location of the region at the crossroads of Europe and Central Asia, the Karabakh conflict settlement should be approached thoroughly and in line with international law.

The resolution called on the Italian government to facilitate promoting peace based on the territorial integrity of countries and contribute to enforcing all resolutions on the Karabakh issue passed by the United Nations, the OSCE and the Council of Europe.

The UN has passed four resolutions on an unconditional pullout of Armenian armed forces from the Azerbaijani territories occupied since a 1990s war, but none of them have been implemented so far.

The Karabakh conflict emerged during the last few years of the Soviet Union. 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, has been under Armenian occupation since the two South Caucasus republics signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following the brutal war. Over a decade of efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group have been fruitless so far.