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The PACE adopted resolution once more reaffirmed the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan

24 January 2017 21:56 (UTC +04:00)

The main discussions of the plenary session held in the second half day of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) winter session, concerned the report “Attacks on journalists and press freedom in Europe”, prepared by the chairman of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media, Vladimir Aryev, APA’s European bureau reports.

The report says that monitoring the state of the media in the territories of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova which are under the control of separatist forces, is impossible and this caused baselessness protests from the Armenian delegation.

Representatives of the Armenian delegation put forward three amendments and additions to exclude specified 9th paragraph. Member of the Armenian delegation Samvel Farmanyan again tried to blame V. Areyev of bias, referring to his relationship with Azerbaijan. V. Aryev also noted that this item was included in the report on the basis of international legal norms and documents regarding the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

He also noted the unacceptability of attempts to assist him such pressure.

Then, all of the above proposals of the Armenian delegation were rejected. PACE members approved the 9th paragraph of the report without any changes - indicating Nagorno-Karabakh as a region of Azerbaijan, which is under the control of Armenian separatists.

In conclusion, the resolution proposed by Vladimir Aryev was adopted without changing by a majority vote.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.