Azernews.Az

YEREVAN – A resolution on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh that will be put on discussion at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly has sparked Armenia’s utter concerns.

Karen Avayan, head of the Armenian delegation at NATO PA, told reporters that the resolution, which contains the term "occupation of seven regions", was unacceptable for Yerevan.

"First of all, the procedure was not carried out properly," he claimed. "The resolution is the outcome of discussions held outside [the assembly’s] commission sittings."

The draft resolution containing six clauses will be mulled at the NATO PA session, due in Warsaw November 12-16. The resolution, drafted by Canadian rapporteur Raynell Andreychuk, says that the occupation of Nagorno Karabakh and seven other Azerbaijani districts has caused suffering of the people living in the region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan waged a war over the mountainous region of Nagorno Karabakh in the early 1990s. Armenia has been occupying over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized territory since then.

Armenia claims that drafting the resolution was agreed during a meeting of Azerbaijani delegation members with NATO PA President John Tanner on the sidelines of the assembly’s session held in Riga. Armenian lawmakers say they learned about this agreement a month thereafter. In June, Armenian Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan sent a letter of protest to the NATO PA president saying that what he called initiatives outside the OSCE Minsk Group brokering talks with Azerbaijan on Karabakh settlement could jeopardize the peace process. He called on NATO PA leaders to refrain from holding discussions on the Karabakh problem.