OSCE PA summer session to hear Karabakh report

A report on "OSCE - Region of Change" will be heard at the summer session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly which opens in Monaco on Tuesday.

A report, prepared by Lithuanian rapporteur Vilija Aleknaite Abramikiene, reflects issues of security in the OSCE area, including protracted conflicts, as well as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a member of Azerbaijani delegation to OSCE PA Eldar Ibrahimov told Trend on Tuesday.

He said the document notes that the protracted conflicts have created a new threat to security and stability in the region.

"As stated in the document, one of these facts is the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as a result of which losses continue and tension increases in the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops. In the report the parties call for the continuation of work on the peace treaty," Ibrahimov said.

The first step in this direction is the withdrawal of snipers and the observance of the ceasefire, the report said. The investigation of incidents in the conflict zone is also an important task.

There will be a lot of speeches on this document, and the Azerbaijani delegation will actively participate in them, thus again bringing to the attention of OSCE parliamentarians occupational policy of Armenia.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.


/Trend/