Orkhan Sattarov, the head of the European Bureau of Vestnik Kavkaza
Vestnik Kavkaza has received a press release of an MP of the Bundestag from Die Linke, the deputy chairman of the parliamentary friendship group Germany-South Caucasus, Katrin Kunert. It was devoted to the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. Kunert urges the federal government of Germany “to support efforts of Russia on settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.” “For effective continuation of peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the OSCE Minsk Group urgently needs formal working structures with independent financing and staff potential,” the MP says. “The fact that violation of the ceasefire regime between the conflicting countries in August didn’t lead to a full-scale war was exclusively an achievement of Russia,” she concluded.
Then, Kunert noted: “The intergovernmental conflict in the South Caucasus should be settled peacefully within international law. Both sides should be ready for compromises and should reject military means. Armenia should stop military occupation of the Azerbaijani territories beyond Nagorno-Karabakh. It would enable about 610 thousand Azerbaijani forced migrants to come back home.”
The Bundestag member stresses that Azerbaijan should provide the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh with legal guarantees. “Thus, the threat of a war would be minimized and they would have enough time to define the final political status of Nagorno-Karabakh by democratic means with the participation of both groups of the population,” Kunerts thinks.
In conclusion the MP says that Die Linke supports a peaceful settlement of the conflict and the right of forced migrants and refugees to return home, notwithstanding their ethnic belonging. “The German government, being a member of the OSCE Minsk Group, should make harder efforts than it has done before and confirm its words by certain acts,” Kunert demands.
