TODAY.AZ / Politics

EU envoy for S.Caucasus visits Azerbaijan

14 January 2015 [13:47] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

The European Union official will discuss the relations between the organization and Azerbaijan during his visit to the country.

Herbert Salber, EU’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Crisis in Georgia paid a visit to Azerbaijan on January 14, according to a message by EU’s office in Azerbaijan on its Facebook page.

During his three-day visit, Ambassador Salber will meet Azerbijani President Ilham Aliyev, Minister of National Security Eldar Mahmudov, Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Chairman of the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh Bayram Safarov and others.

Earlier, Salber visited Azerbaijan in last October and discussed the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, alongside with other issues with the high-ranking Azerbaijani officials.

He said EU attaches particular importance to finding a solution to the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which erupted back in 1988 over Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

European Parliament in 2013 adopted a resolution which confirmed that Armenian troops have occupied Azerbaijani territories and called for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions and the L'Aquila statement of the mediating countries' leaders in 2009.

According to changes to the resolution, the European parliament recalled its position that the occupation of the territory of an Eastern Partnership member by another member state violates the fundamental principles and objectives of the EU program.

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 U.S., 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.

--

Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/138294.html

Print version

Views: 2344

Connect with us. Get latest news and updates.

Recommend news to friend

  • Your name:
  • Your e-mail:
  • Friend's name:
  • Friend's e-mail: