The settlement of the Karabakh conflict should be in line with the right to self-determination, MEP Eleni Teocharous said in a statement on the incidents along the frontier of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. The statement reads:

“The bloody incidents that erupted along the frontiers of Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh on April 2, 2016, constitute developments that can lead to a wider conflict and blow up the Caucasus regions.

It is obvious that the escalation of the crisis puts stability and peace at a high risk. The EU and the international community in general bear their own responsibility since, for many year, they underestimated how dangerous the dormant conflict in Nagorno Karabakh is. Therefore, the EU should take initiative and diplomatic actions with the aim of mobilizing the international community and thus prevent a further escalation of the crisis.

The current developments with many soldiers and civilians from both sides losing their lives come to prove the need for a comprehensive solution based on the right to self-determination. If international community and particularly the EU do not intensify their efforts towards a democratic solution, a new catastrophic war is to come.

Azerbaijani government should stop violating the agreed ceasefire through provocative military actions, which turn into boomerang not only for its own citizens, but also for the stability and peace within the wider Caucasus region.

The lack of EU strategy in Caucasus region is offering Russia the advantage of having the initiative moves and the diplomatic upper hand. The European Parliament cannot simply watch the parties involved play with fire. Therefore, it should ask the High Representative of the EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to play a constructive and active role and thereby avert the escalation of the crisis.

The EU and UN and the great powers through the Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ efforts could take such measures in order to consolidate stability and peace among the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples, regardless of whether they are inhabitants of the Armenian Republic, the Azerbaijani Republic or Nagorno Karabakh. The settlement of the conflict should be in line with the right to self-determination. This is the only fair, democratic and realistic approach, which can lead to a viable settlement of the conflict.”