Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 5
By Ilhama Isabalayeva – Trend:
Armenia, which occupied Azerbaijani territories, violated most of the commitments undertaken upon accession to the Council of Europe, Azerbaijani MP Asim Mollazade told Trend Oct. 5.
Mollazade was commenting on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement about the Council of Europe, made at a meeting with the delegation of the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the European Union.
“Nevertheless, no discussions on those issues are held in Council of Europe,” he said. “A concrete information struggle is being conducted in the structure against Azerbaijan.”
"I think that the Council of Europe must change its policy on these issues,” he said. “First of all, the matter rests in the work of the relevant executive body and the general secretariat of this structure.”
“I also think that the Azerbaijani delegation represented in the structure will also express its position in this regard and Azerbaijan’s interests will be discussed at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe," Mollazade said.
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 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.