TODAY.AZ / Politics

Azerbaijani, EU officials discuss Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

15 January 2015 [13:46] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Finding a solution to the decades-old Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was the main topic of discussion during a meeting of Azerbaijani foreign policy head and European Union official.

Elmar Mammadyarov and Herbert Salber, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus exchanged view on the negotiation process towards the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which emerged in 1988 after Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan, during their meeting on January 14, Foreign Ministry said.

Referring to Armenia’s actions to destabilize the situation in the region and to resort to the sabotage, Mammadyarov said first and foremost, the Armenian armed forces must withdraw from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan for peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions in the early 1990s. As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

Mammadyarov and Salber further discussed the issues connected with the further promotion of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU.

The strategic partnership in the energy sphere between Azerbaijan and the EU, the prospects for development of bilateral cooperation were also discussed during the meeting.

Salber emphasized Azerbaijan’s important role in energy security of Europe.

On the same day, Salber met with Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov,Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister. During the meeting, the sidesfocused on the military-political situation in the region, as well as the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Earlier in the day, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received Salber, who is on a three-day visit to Azerbaijan to meet with the officials of the country.The sides widely discussed the issues related to settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

President Aliyev expressed Azerbaijan’s interest in the fast settlement of the conflict, adding the country spares no efforts towards liberating its internationally recognized lands from occupation.

The EU and Azerbaijan are maintaining relations under the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which was signed in 1996 and came into force in 1999.

PCA has provided the legal framework for bilateral relations in the areas of political dialogue, trade, investment, economic, legislative and cultural cooperation.

Azerbaijan is also included in the EU program on "Eastern Partnership" adopted on the initiative of Poland and Sweden and approved at the EU summit in Brussels in 2008.

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.

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

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/138317.html

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