Bloomberg / Business Week
July 5 2012

Van Rompuy Urges Azerbaijan, Armenia to Respect 1994 Cease-Fire
By Zulfugar Agayev on July 05, 2012

European Council President Herman van Rompuy urged Azerbaijan and
Armenia to respect the cease-fire they signed in 1994 to prevent a
further escalation of a conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

`The European Union calls on both sides to strictly respect the
cease-fire,’ Rompuy said today in the Azeri capital, Baku.

At least ten soldiers were killed in clashes between Azeri and
Armenian forces last month. The two countries fought over
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mostly ethnic Armenian region that broke free of
Azerbaijan’s control after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in
1991.

Armenians seized Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts from
Azerbaijan in a war that killed about 30,000 people and displaced more
than a million before a cease-fire agreement was brokered by Russia in
1994. The sides have yet sign a peace agreement.

The EU supports the efforts of the so-called Minsk Group of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, co- chaired by
the U.S., Russia and France, to find a peaceful solution to the
conflict, Rompuy said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress