Serbia, Belgrade /special corr. Trend E.Huseynli / Absence of control on Azerbaijan's territory of Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Armenia presents difficulties for ecological security and environmental protection, said the Director of OSCE Ecology and Economy Department, Bernard Snow, at the event dedicated to the conflict zones in South Caucasus countries.
According to him, the OSCE maintain on the focus the arsons in occupied Azerbaijani territories. Monitoring was held on it. According to initial suppositions, the arsons in these territories took place due to the high temperature of the weather. But the human factor is not excluded, Snow said. The OSCE representative said that monitoring is planned to be held in uncontrolled Nagorno-Karabakh.
The first reporting meeting of the sixth Conference of the Ecology Ministers under topic of "Environment for Europe" commenced on 10 October in Belgrade.
Azerbaijan's Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Huseyngulu Bagirov, who attends the meeting, said that over the recent years, the arsons intensively take place in Nagorno-Karabakh and it destroyed 40.000 ha of lands.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.