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EU representative: Efforts for Karabakh conflict settlement should be intensified

06 May 2016 16:13 (UTC +04:00)

The diplomats reviewed public and private facilities destroyed as a result of Armenia’s shelling of Aghdam and Terter district.

The US embassy’s military attaché, Col. Keith Felter, emphasized the importance of an early solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“I hope the two sides will find a way to the peaceful settlement of the conflict and we will not see such scenes any more. Both sides are suffering from this conflict. To end this [suffering], the conflict should be settled peacefully,” he said.

EU representative Toralf Pilz said he was astonished by civilians refusing to leave the area despite constant gunfire by the enemy.

“People have been living here in danger for years. After returning, we need to intensify efforts for a peaceful solution to the conflict. I will inform high-ranking diplomats about this,” he underlined.

In turn, Ambassador of Cuba to Azerbaijan Omar Senon Medina Kintero thanked the Azerbaijani side for organizing such a trip.

Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ismail Alper Coskun stressed the importance of the liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories as soon as possible.

“No one wants a war. Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is inviolable. Turkey supports Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he said.

French ambassador’s personal advisor Fabienne Drout-Lozinski refused to comment.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.