Azerbaijani MP Rafael Huseynov urged the Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland to draw even more attention to the issue of the Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons June 23 during the summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
“Mr. Secretary General, you are interested in some people in Azerbaijan,” Azerbaijani MP said. “It would be better if you were interested in all the Azerbaijanis. Over one million people became refugees and internally displaced persons as a result of occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia.”
“They can’t return to their homelands for over 20 years already,” he said. “Although you have powers, you didn’t take any measures. You never made an effective statement.”
Jagland for his part said that it is a very scrupulous and difficult issue.
The process of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict depends on the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group, according to Jagland.
The Council of Europe hasn’t received an appeal on this issue, he said. “We can’t interfere in the ongoing negotiation process.”
Indeed, no results have been achieved to date and this is explained with the difficulty of the situation, he said. “You know that better than me.”
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
/Trend/
