Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

A member of the European Parliament has said the United Nations and most countries of the world do not recognize any right of Armenia to the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Ivo Vajgl made the remarks while replying to the European Azerbaijan Society's (TEAS) question on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Vajgl said Armenia violates international law and has to withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Unfortunately, Armenia is supported by Russia who has its troops stationed in this country. Both Armenia and Russia are behaving in an unacceptable way and are destabilizing the situation in the entire region," Vajgl said.

According to him, the principle of the inviolability of countries' borders within their internationally recognized borders is one of the top priorities in ensuring peace and stability in the world.

"If a country, a partner within the Eastern Partnership is in breach of these principles, this certainly represents a problem for the Eastern Partnership as a whole, and should be regarded as an urgent and pressing issue. Every person who has been expelled from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan should get the possibility to return home," Vajgl said.

He also said the partnership between Azerbaijan and the European Union is not confined to the issue of energy supply to Western European countries.

"Azerbaijan should be seen as a country with extraordinary importance for regional stability. This is the reason why the EU is interested in positive developments as far as the so-called frozen conflicts in the region are concerned," Vajgl said.

Vajgl said the OSCE Minsk Group has made a lot of effort to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem but obviously it is not a problem which could be addressed just on the level of diplomacy.

According to Vajgl, it is a major political problem which can be solved only with cooperation of all countries that have a clout in the Caucasus.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.