Members of the European Parliament Eleni Theocharous, Frank Engel, Tatjana Zdanoka, Ewald Stadler, Inaki Irazabalbeitia, Michele Rivasi, as well as Spanish parliament member Jon Inarritu issued a statement on the 20th anniversary of the ceasefire agreement in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

The MPs, in particular, noted, that the fragile peace established by the agreement not only allowed avoiding escalation of the conflict and further human losses but created possibility for the search of ways of peaceful settlement of the conflict.

“Unfortunately, despite all the efforts the 20 years of ceasefire have not turned into a lasting and stable peace. Still, from time to time, we get the alarming news on recurrent incidents on the line of contact that cause new losses among young soldiers on both sides and may lead to renewed hostilities,” the statement says.

The MPs emphasized the strategic importance of the South Caucasus for the EU and the need to transform it into a region of sustainable peace, stability and prosperity, calling to refrain from use of force as well as to avoid provocative policies and rhetoric, inflammatory statements and manipulation of history.

The politicians highly appreciated the fact that both Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia have on numerous occasions approved their commitment to resolve the conflict by exclusively peaceful means through ongoing OSCE negotiation efforts, voicing readiness to withdraw snipers from the line of contact as a confidence and security building measure.

“We would like to use this anniversary to call on Azerbaijani authorities to withdraw snipers from the line of contact and Armenian-Azerbaijani border to avoid any further escalation of conflict. It is also crucial, that Azerbaijan's leadership commits itself to exclusively peaceful resolution of the conflict,” the statement says.

The MPs called the EU to engage in contributing to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs lead process of fostering peace and understanding among the parties to the conflict to make possible the peaceful resolution of the conflict so that human rights and freedoms enjoyed in Europe are within a reach of its neighborhood too.