Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

EU must assist with resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a member of European Parliament Claudiu-Ciprian Tanasescu said.

He was replying to a survey from the European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS) on the conflict, Azertag news agency reported.

"The Minsk Group, led unanimously by Russia, the U.S., and France, is still in the center and the peace process should be revived with the help of the EU," Tanasescu said.

He noted that this can, however, only succeed if the conflicting parties themselves return to the negotiations table again.

Tanasescu said the EU has emphasized in its security strategy from 2003 that its foreign and security policy is based upon international law.

"Therefore, the UN resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven occupied regions are, from a European perspective, binding and must be implemented," MEP said.

According to Tanasecu, the territorial integrity is a basic component of state sovereignty and therefore, the population has the right to live peacefully within borders defined by international law.

"This is impossible in the case of Azerbaijan, whose 20 percent of the territory is occupied by the regular army of a neighboring state and also is a home for many refugees. This is an unbearable situation," MEP said.

The South Caucasus nations are important for Europe not only as a geographical neighboring region, he added

Tanasecu said Azerbaijan plays an especially important role in European energy security.

"An example is the gas transportation through the Southern corridor. This economic exchange is an advantage for both sides," MEP said.

He said Azerbaijan has to be granted the rights of the UN Security Council resolutions to stabilize the South Caucasus region. "A reconciliation between Armenia and Azerbaijan is long overdue," Tanasecu said.

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 US, 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.

Peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group have produced no results so far.