Necessary to find solution over Karabakh conflict: PACE
By Nigar Orujova
It is necessary to find a solution over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Anne Brasseur, President of the PACE said while addressing the regular session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
A regular session of the PACE has started in Strasbourg on January 25. The session will end on January 29.
Brasseur stressed that it is necessary to find a solution in order to advance in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, because it has been going on for so many years and there is no step forward.
Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.
Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.
Brasseur further noted that the debates during the session will contribute to the settlement of the conflict, adding that the PACE does not take somebody’s side in this conflict.
“It is necessary to find a solution to the conflict and ensure the rights of both sides. The solution will not be found as long as mutual accusations are made,” she said, adding that casualties on both sides are also unacceptable.
Two reports on Azerbaijan will be discussed during the OSCE PA Winter Session on January 26.
The session will discuss the report on “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” prepared by MP Robert Walter (UK) and the report by MP Milica Markovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) entitled “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water”.
Europe still has problem of unresolved conflicts
Europe still has a problem of unresolved conflicts, Pedro Agramunt, a new president of PACE said in a speech at the session.
At the first day of the session, Spanish lawmaker Agramunt has replaced incumbent Anne Brasseur as the president of PACE.
He called the unresolved conflicts one of the challenges for the PACE. Such conflicts as Nagorno-Karabakh, Transdniestria, the conflict in the east of Ukraine and Georgia, have not yet been settled, the president stressed.
Agramunt said that the issue as well as the problem of security and the migration crisis would occupy the main place in the agenda of the PACE in the near future.
Pedro Agramunt was a member of the Spanish delegation in the European Security and Defence Assembly/Assembly of WEU (Western European Union) since 2000, pertaining to its Committee of Presidents, the Defense Committee and the Political Committee, which was Chairman.
Moreover, he was the president of the Federated Group of Christian Democrats and European Democrats. Agramunt has worked as co-rapporteur of PACE Monitoring Committee on Azerbaijan.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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