PACE ad hoc committee on Nagorno-Karabakh conducts meeting

A meeting of the PACE ad hoc committee on Nagorno-Karabakh was conducted on the first working day of the PACE summer session, the chairman of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov said, Trend reports.

"Today we witnessed a very important event in the Council of Europe. A meeting of the PACE ad hoc committee on Nagorno-Karabakh was conducted. The ad hoc committee started its work with the participation of the Azerbaijani delegation, including me and Sabir Hajiyev, as well as the representatives of several political parties, rapporteurs on Armenia and representatives of the PACE Secretariat. However, the Armenian delegation refused to attend the meeting," Seyidov said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenianarmed 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. Theco-chairs of the OSCE MinskGroup - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's fourresolutions on the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surroundingregions.