Renouncement of use of force to help Karabakh conflict resolution

It's my first regional visit as the OSCE PA President, but I've been in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan several times before. We have worked a lot with parliamentarian delegations to the OSCE, government and authorities from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

First of all, all conflicts can be resolved and we have seen in the history of mankind and in the history of this region that conflicts can be settled when there was a political courage from the leaderships. The first step based on conclusions of Goran Lenmarker, a truly vital step, is that that violence and war can’t be viewed as the solution to this problem. This is a great step, because if both sides at all levels decide to state clearly that they renounce war and violence in all circumstances and withdraw the snipers. The other step is to accept the idea of negotiating and of course we know that it’s a conflict which is not so easy to resolve. It is a conflict between two major principles in international relations - indelibility of the borders, and the right of nations to self-determination. We have to conciliate with this two basic principles and of course countries like Armenia and Azerbaijan, who had their independence in early 20th century, for some two years and after were under the Soviet Empire, are in a difficult situation, but we know cases, for example, in the Balkans, Former Republic of Yugoslavia, also broke down and there are still border conflicts and we have seen some new countries born from Former Republic of Yugoslavia. We have to try to respect the internationals rules. If there is political will and courage from both sides, there will be solutions.

If both sides renounce war and violence, including the authorities in Nagorno Karabakh, it will be a big step forward. Everything can be solved after that. Those, who must compromise, are Azeri authorities and Armenian authorities at the level of presidents and also local authorities in Nagorno Karabakh. If they say that violence and war is not a way to anything and only leads to destruction, it is a big step forward. We certainly know that Turks murdered more than 1 million Armenians in 1915. I think Turkish and Armenian leaderships should to agree to have good relations. Of course we should not forget history, in certain case we should even not forgive the crimes that were committed. But one thing is to forget and the other thing is to make out about what happened in 1915.