PACE Criticizes Armenian Occupation Of Azerbaijani Territories

Armenia and Azerbaijan should actively submit constructive proposals to each other via the OSCE’s Minsk Group for achieving a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Assembly said today – and if that fails, they should consider using the UN’s International Court of Justice. More than ten years after the conflict began, “considerable parts of the territory of Azerbaijan are still occupied by Armenian forces”, the parliamentarians pointed out – adding that occupation of foreign territory by a member state was a grave violation of that state’s obligations to the Council of Europe. They called on Azerbaijan to establish contacts with the political representatives of both communities from Nagorno-Karabakh, without preconditions, regarding the future status of the region. The Assembly also offered its help in creating a “parliamentary dimension” to the Minsk Process.