Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 11
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
MP (SPD fraction) Chairman of the Parliamentary Group for South Caucasus in the German Bundestag Johannes Kahrs made a statement on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for "Hauptstadt INSIDER" publication, the Azerbaijan-Europe society said on Aug. 11.
"Innocent people have been recently killed as a result of cease-fire violations on the Azerbaijani-Armenian contact line," according to the statement.
"Guiding by the four resolutions of the UN Security Council, the international community demands the immediate withdrawal of the Armenian occupation forces from the occupied territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions," according to the statement.
In his statement, Kahrs stressed that, despite this, no progress was achieved in the conflict settlement process.
The West and Russia must increase pressure on Armenia to cease the country's occupation. Otherwise, it will be impossible to avoid a new war in the South Caucasus region, according to the statement.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries 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 four U.N. Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.