Too little progress has been observed in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict over the last five year, the outgoing EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby said in Baku.
“Certainly, there were positive aspects, for example, intensifying the negotiation process in 2008 after the conflict in Georgia. The parties of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict recalled about the danger due to the unresolved status of the conflict. The situation with Nagorno-Karabakh conflict raises concerns because the conflict does not exist in a vacuum,” Semneby told a press conference on February 26.
According to him, EU supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group and personally Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to advance the negotiating process, Trend News reports.
“We are confident that these efforts helped to reduce tensions. The situation would be worse without them,” Semneby said.
This is Semneby’s last visit to the region as an EU Envoy for the South Caucasus. He arrived in Baku from Yerevan. Semneby met with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and representatives of the opposition in Yerevan.
The Nagorno-Karabakh (armed) conflict broke out back in 1991, when, subsequent to the demand for self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh people, Azerbaijani authorities attempted to resolve the issue through ethnic cleansings, carried out by Soviet security forces (KGB special units) under the pretext of the implementation of the passport regime and by launching of large-scale military operations, which left thousands dead and caused considerable material damage. A cease-fire agreement was established in 1994. Negotiations on the settlement of the conflict are being conducted under the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen (Russia, USA, France) and on the basis of their Madrid proposals, presented in November, 2007.
Azerbaijan has not yet implemented the 4 resolutions of the UN Security Council adopted in 1993, by continuing to provoke arms race in the region and openly violating one of the basic principles of the international law non-use of force or threat of force.
