February 27, 2004 - 17:38 AMT
EUROPARLIAMENT VOTED DOWN PRO-AZERI VARIANT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT
February 26 the European Parliament adopted the "European Union Policy toward the South Caucasus" resolution worked out by Swedish deputy Per Gahrton. Along with other points the project of resolution maintained an arguable indent on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement providing for EU's support of enabling Baku-Yerevan-Nakhichevan railway in exchange for "the seized Azeri territories". The parliamentary majority, that is the European People's (Christian Democratic) Party and European Socialists spoke for omitting the indent from the resolution. As a result, the Europarliament by overwhelming majority voted down the above mentioned "variant of exchange" always propagandized by Azerbaijan in European structures, classifying it as an attempt to proceed from package to stepwise settlement of the Karabakh conflict. As reported by RA MFA press office, the EU again refrained from taking one-sided decisions on the Karabakh issue thus preventing creation of additional complications for its resolving. Many deputies agreed that the negotiations should be resumed at the level that was achieved earlier and that the peaceful settlement of the conflict can provided by the continuation of the dialogue only.