European Parliament rules out military settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict

YEREVAN, JULY 7, ARMENPRESS. David McAllister (EPP, DE), Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Sajjad Karim (ECR, UK), Chair of the Delegation to the EU-Armenia and EU-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Cooperation Committees and Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA, DE), Chair of the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, issued a statement over the July 4 ceasefire violation in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact.

Armenpress presents the full statement:

“The European Parliament is greatly concerned about the renewed violence earlier this week between Armenia and Azerbaijan which has yet again led to the death of civilians, in the Fizuli region. We express our deep condolences to the families of the victims.

We call for an immediate stop to military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As previously stated, we firmly believe that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict does not have a military solution. Instead, the conflict needs an early political settlement in accordance with international law. This is the only way to stop unnecessarily claiming the lives of civilians and soldiers on both sides.

We fully support the mediation efforts and proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. In order for this mediation to have a chance of success, both Armenia and Azerbaijan need to find the political courage to negotiate in good faith”.

The Azerbaijani armed forces continued violating the ceasefire regime in different sections of Artsakh-Azerbaijan contact line on July 4. Particularly, in the period of 11:30-11:35 the Azerbaijani troops fired 82 mm mortars (4 projectiles) in the eastern direction of the contact line and anti-tank missiles (3 projectiles) in the same section at about 12:45-12:55. In the southern direction the Azerbaijanis fired 60 mm mortars (3 projectiles) at 13:35, while at the period of 20:20-20:30 the Azerbaijani armed forces fired 5 projectiles from TR-107 multiple rocket launcher from a military position located in Alkhanlu village in the direction of a command post of a regiment located in the southern direction, and at 20:48 3 projectiles were fired in the same direction from 82 mm mortars. The front line units of the Defense Army had no alternative but take retaliatory measures to suppress the enemy's aggressive activity at 20:31-20:40, as a result of which the military position of Azerbaijan in Alkhanlu village was damaged. According to credible information from the relevant services of the Defense Army, the enemy has suffered losses. The Defense Army suffered no casualties as a result of the provocative actions initiated by Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani side announced two civilians were killed and one was wounded.