The issue of re-establishing the sub-committee dealing with Nagorno Karabakh issue was raised during PACE session in December, said Mevlut Cavusoglu, newly elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

“This issue was on the agenda before I was elected as President. So, it is necessary to push this sub-committee to function for contributing to conflict settlement,” he told the Azeri Press Agency.

Asked whether a meeting with the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegations to PACE is planned, Mr. Cavusoglu said, “I would like to meet with the Azerbaijani and Armenian parliamentarians and also pay a visit to both countries, as it’s important to restore a constructive dialogue. But I can’t set any date because of a heavy schedule. If not now, I will probably meet the delegations during the next PACE session.”

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an intergovernmental treaty. The Assembly is one of the two statutory organs of the Council of Europe, which is composed of the Committee of Ministers (the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, meeting usually at the level of their deputies) and the Assembly representing the political forces (majority and opposition) in its member states.

PACE has a total of 642 members – 321 principal members and 321 substitutes - who are representatives of each member state. There are also 18 delegates from the Canadian, Israeli and Mexican observers. The size of each country determines its number of representatives and number of votes. This is in contrast in the committee of ministers, where each country has one vote.

Each State member selects its method of designating its representatives to the parliamentary assembly; however, they must be chosen from among the members of the respective Parliaments. Moreover, the political composition of each national delegation must reflect the representation of the different parties within the respective parliaments.

The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out in 1988 as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched in the final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from 1991 to 1994. Since the ceasefire in 1994, sealed by Armenia, NKR and Azerbaijan, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the control of NKR defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group up till now.