EP countries urge earliest settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
By Sara Rajabova
The participants of the third Eastern Partnership Summit welcomed the recent meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Vienna, the declaration of the Summit adopted on November 29 reads.
Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsian met in Vienna on November 19 with participation of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.
The declaration of the summit noted that the summit participants welcome the presidents' agreement to advance the negotiations towards a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The summit participants emphasized the need for the earliest peaceful settlement of the conflicts on the basis of the principles and norms of international law.
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, almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.
The Eastern Partnership, which is comprised of six countries, including Azerbaijan, is an initiative of Poland and Sweden aimed at improving relations with the CIS countries as part of the European Neighborhood Policy.