Documentary evidence of Armenia`s occupation of Azerbaijani territories presented at PACE meeting

/By Azernews/

By Gunay Camal

A documentary evidence of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia was presented at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as the Assembly`s Monitoring Committee heard a report from Stefan Schennach, PACE co-rapporteur for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, who paid a three-day fact-finding visit to the country.

Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE Samad Seyidov circulated brochures and documents at the meeting, providing evidence of the Armenian armed units` shelling Azerbaijani residential areas and killing civilians on the line of contact.

In his report, Monitoring Committee co-rapporteur Schennach expressed “strong” concern at the recent escalation of the situation along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh and the occupied territories and the reports of civilian casualties and deaths.

The two South Caucasus countries -- Azerbaijan and Armenia remain in a state of war since early 1990s when the latter staged a war against its neighbor.

Peace talks over the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that emerged over Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. However, as Armenia continues to follow non-constructive position, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries over 20 years.

Seyidov, while talking to Azertac, said that European MPs, who usually were critical of Azerbaijan, this time welcomed positive processes taking place in Azerbaijan. “They hailed the results of President Ilham Aliyev`s policy.”

He informed the Monitoring Committee members of a bill declaring amnesty on the occasion of May 28th Republic Day, which was passed by the Parliament of Azerbaijan.

“Submitted by President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, MP Mehriban Aliyeva, the Amnesty Act will affect 10,000 people, with 3,500 convicts being released from detention facilities. The European MPs welcomed the bill,” he said.

Seyidov further noted that the Committee also agreed to send co-rapporteurs to Azerbaijan for another mission in June.

“The co-rapporteurs will monitor the elections at constituency No. 90, where the results of parliamentary elections were annulled. They will also hold meetings with state officials. One of the co-rapporteurs will be chair of the Monitoring Committee,” he said.