EuFoA: many MEPs find Azerbaijan’s behavior inappropriate

PanARMENIAN.Net - On April 18, 2012, the European Parliament (EP) adopted two resolutions in the context of the negotiations for the new Association Agreements with Armenia and with Azerbaijan.

European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) hails that the EP prevailed its core values for the Eastern Partnership, especially on a continued democratisation and a balanced approach to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The report is particularly supportive for Armenia but also reminds of the remaining homework, EuFoA stresses.

“The reports are very supportive and they also contain some new positive aspects for Armenia. The EP clearly acknowledges that Armenia has become more European and calls for more EU assistance for this process.” comments EuFoA Secretary General Dr Michael Kambeck.

On Nagorno Karabakh, the EP strongly supports ALL points of the Minsk Group’s Madrid Principles as a package, including for the first time explicitly “international security guarantees that would include a genuine multinational peacekeeping operation in order to create suitable conditions for the future legally-binding free expression of will concerning the final status of Nagorno Karabakh”.

Referring to Nagorno Karabakh, MEP Dr Andrey Kovatchev, member of the Europe-Armenia Advisory Council, said in the Plenary that “it can only be resolved by peaceful means within the framework of international law and in accordance with the principles agreed in the Minsk Group. The stronger role of the EU in the region requires us to be cautious and correct in our assessments so that we should not be like a ball in a china shop, and instead of helping to achieve a mutually acceptable solution to the conflict [we might] actually make it more difficult.”

On the same issue, Kambeck remarks that “the EP again fully supports the OSCE Minsk Group efforts and defended this balanced position against an unprecedented lobbying campaign from Azerbaijan. I am glad that, once the MEPs looked into the issues more closely, they recognised the traps. Many MEPs felt that this was very inappropriate.”