As a result of the occupation policy of Armenia, a serious damage has been inflicted to Azerbaijan’s nature, Azerbaijan MP believes.
“As a result of Armenia’s occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, most of the forests have been destroyed,” said a member of Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Rafael Huseynov, during his speech at the meeting of the PACE Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs.
According to Huseynov, the meeting covered several issues of great importance for present and future Europe: the Report on Forest, which is the future of our planet”, prepared by the Russian MP Timchenko, which is supposed to be presented to the agenda of one of the next PACE sessions, caused serious discontent. Together with some European MPs, I also made a speech, criticizing non-reflection in report the serious damage to forests as a result of Armenian occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, and highlighted the need to add the text regarding this problem, “- said MP.
According to the MP, most of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, which are currently under Armenian control, were covered by forests: “I said that most of these forests have been destroyed. In these forests, some trees had been named in the Red Book, there were rare species. But the occupiers, without taking this into account, completely destroyed the forests, destroying them for raw materials for the furniture industry,” said the member of the delegation.
According to Huseynov, it is purposefully pursued aggressive line of Armenia. Azerbaijani MP stressed the overall importance of taking urgent measures relating to the fate of forests in the territory of not only Azerbaijan, but also in other European territories where armed conflicts take place. The Committee recommended Huseynov to prepare a separate document in this regard.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. General Assembly’s resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the occupied territories.
Trend