Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug.16 / Trend, T. Hajiyev /
The process of resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict must be accelerated, head of the EU representative office in Azerbaijan Roland Kobia told media.
"Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to reach an agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement at the Kazan meeting," he said. "But this does not mean that the whole process has failed. Of course, the failure to reach an agreement at the meeting is disappointing. But a few days later a meeting was held in Sochi. I heard it was held in a positive atmosphere. We would like this process to continue. I would not like to think that the settlement process has ended."
Kobia touched upon the incidents occurring at the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.
"We are saddened by the situation in the frontal zone," he said. "There must not be such cases from the Azerbaijani or Armenian sides, because there is a ceasefire regime. No one should die there. Both sides must respect the ceasefire regime."
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent 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 the 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.