MEP CALLS ON EU TO ASSIST IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Oct 9 2013
9 October 2013, 12:28 (GMT+05:00)
By Sara Rajabova
EU must assist with resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, a member of European Parliament Claudiu-Ciprian Tanasescu
said.
He was replying to a survey from the European Azerbaijan Society
(TEAS) on the conflict, Azertag news agency reported.
“The Minsk Group, led unanimously by Russia, the U.S., and France,
is still in the center and the peace process should be revived with
the help of the EU,” Tanasescu said.
He noted that this can, however, only succeed if the conflicting
parties themselves return to the negotiations table again.
Tanasescu said the EU has emphasized in its security strategy from 2003
that its foreign and security policy is based upon international law.
“Therefore, the UN resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven
occupied regions are, from a European perspective, binding and must
be implemented,” MEP said.
According to Tanasecu, the territorial integrity is a basic component
of state sovereignty and therefore, the population has the right to
live peacefully within borders defined by international law.
“This is impossible in the case of Azerbaijan, whose 20 percent of the
territory is occupied by the regular army of a neighboring state and
also is a home for many refugees. This is an unbearable situation,”
MEP said.
The South Caucasus nations are important for Europe not only as a
geographical neighboring region, he added
Tanasecu said Azerbaijan plays an especially important role in European
energy security.
“An example is the gas transportation through the Southern corridor.
This economic exchange is an advantage for both sides,” MEP said.
He said Azerbaijan has to be granted the rights of the UN Security
Council resolutions to stabilize the South Caucasus region. “A
reconciliation between Armenia and Azerbaijan is long overdue,”
Tanasecu said.
For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in
conflict which emerged over Armenia’s territorial claims against its
South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory,
including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. A fragile
ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by
US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country’s territories.
Peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group have produced no results
so far.