German MP: Armenia should act first to ease tension in Karabakh conflict

Source: AzerNews

Germany supports the UN resolutions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a lawmaker has said.

According to the European Azerbaijan Society, Bundestag member from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Peter Tauber, noted that the UN Security Council has repeatedly called on Armenia to withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh, and the EU and OSCE have also joined these calls.

He said a million refugees are still unable to return to their homes.

"This is an impressive figure, given that the population of Azerbaijan is nine million. Refugees have the right to return to their native lands, these occupied territories are part of Azerbaijan."

"While there is a debate about the opening of the Khojaly airport (in Nagorno-Karabakh), the conflict in the occupied territories can escalate any time, it is a major provocation against Azerbaijan," Tauber said.

He went on to say that Armenia has to take the first step for reducing tension.

If the resolutions of the UN Security Council are not implemented, then the whole peace process is losing ground, Tauber believes.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory have not been enforced to this day.

Russia, France and the U.S. have long been working to broker a solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through the OSCE Minsk Group, but their efforts have been largely fruitless so far.

Peace talks are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The document envisions a return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons to return home.