The Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Pedro Agramunt, believes that all the conflicts, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved within the territorial integrity of the countries.
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Pedro Agramunt, believes that all conflicts, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved within territorial integrity of the countries.
"The position of PACE and my personal position is that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and all conflicts as a whole should be resolved within territorial integrity of the countries," he said at a meeting with the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Oktay Asadov at a meeting of the Council of the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly in St. Petersburg.
"I was subjected to sharp criticism from the Armenian side and even some lawmakers for this position. But it means nothing to me, because I am confident that my position is just. The main issue for me is the fastest settlement of the conflict and I will do everything in my power for this [goal]," AzerTAc cited the PACE chairman as saying.
Oktay Asadov thanked Pedro Agramunt for his fair position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, stressing that the Azerbaijani delegation is actively participating in this international framework.
Professor Wilfried Fuhrmann from Potsdam, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the efforts made to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are not enough. "At the moment, I see only efforts to strengthen the status quo," he said.
According to the expert, the key problem is that Armenia will never return the occupied territories voluntarily, and the West will not make the de-occupation an official condition for Armenia, as it seeks to pull the whole South Caucasus to its side as a geopolitical unit to counter Russia and the Eurasian Union, promising economic bonuses to the all three countries, including Azerbaijan.
"If Russia demands Armenia to return the occupied territories to Azerbaijan, Yerevan will immediately begin to threaten Moscow to withdraw from the Eurasian Union and to sign an association agreement with the EU. The situation is very unpredictable now. I think that France and the United States are mistaken in thinking that the process of the Eastern Ukraine truce can be applied to Nagorno-Karabakh," Wilfried Fuhrmann warned.
The head of the Center for Global Studies, Nana Devdariani, in turn, called on all parties concerned to work, because a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will allow to stabilize the region.
"There is a political class in Tbilisi which believes it does not make sense to talk to Russia, whereas the issues must be resolved with those, with whom you have a problem. The same thing applies to Armenia and Azerbaijan: we should not expect a settlement any time soon, however, it is necessary to break the deadlock, because the conflict has lasted too long and recurrent military escalations harm everyone, first of all, the civilian population," she reminded.
Devdariani disagreed with Fuhrmann that recent events, especially the meeting of Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Vienna mediated by the foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries, contribute to the strengthening of the status quo in the conflict zone. "The fact is that the long-term consolidation of the status quo in such conflicts cannot happen," the expert noted.
Admitting that abilities of international mediators to resolve the conflict are limited, Nana Devdariani expressed confidence that all the working leverages are in Russia's hands.
"Experience in conflict settlement shows that the role of Western countries and international organizations is limited to stopping bloodshed. Russia, in turn, can play a positive role in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," she said.
