PACE urges Azerbaijan to carry out its commitments

PACE plenary meeting Wednesday adopted a statement urging Azerbaijan to carry out its commitments towards the Council of Europe on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, according to Radio Liberty.

The statement initiated by member of Heritage parliamentary faction Zaruhi Postanjyan was signed by over three dozen PACE deputies.

The document calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict through peaceful means excluding threat to use force.

“Against the commitments assumed towards the Council of Europe, Azerbaijan keeps its dangerous militarized policy, with bellicose rhetoric sowing seeds of hostility against Armenia and Armenians,” statement said. “Azerbaijan refuses to recognize Nagorno Karabakh right to self-determination, refuses to negotiate with the main party of the conflict- representatives of Nagorno Karabakh, and blacklists everybody, including PACE members, who visits Karabakh.”

“PACE should demand from Azerbaijan to more completely and honestly carry out its commitments towards Council of Europe,” statement concluded.

The Nagorno-Karabakh (armed) conflict broke out back in 1991, when, subsequent to the demand for self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh people, Azerbaijani authorities attempted to resolve the issue through ethnic cleansings, carried out by Soviet security forces (KGB special units) under the pretext of the implementation of the passport regime and by launching of large-scale military operations, which left thousands dead and caused considerable material damage. A cease-fire agreement was established in 1994. Negotiations on the settlement of the conflict are being conducted under the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen (Russia, USA, France) and on the basis of their Madrid proposals, presented in November, 2007.
Azerbaijan has not yet implemented the 4 resolutions of the UN Security Council adopted in 1993, by continuing to provoke arms race in the region and openly violating on of the basic principles of the international law non-use of force or threat of force.