The resolution of the European Parliament (EP) against Azerbaijan is full of legal and historical inaccuracies, said the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Edmondo Cirielli, Report informs.
Cirielli is also the National Coordinator of Fratelli d’Italia which abstained during the voting for the resolution.
He recalled that it is Armenia that illegally (condemned by the UN) occupied, for thirty years, not only Nagorno-Karabakh but also double the territory inhabited only by Azerbaijanis, propped up by the Red Army: “It is not Azerbaijan that is responsible for the Armenians abandoning the region, as testified by independent UN reports. In contrast, more than 750,000 Azerbaijanis were forced to flee by the ongoing war sparked by Armenia under the pretext of protecting Armenians living in internationally recognized Azerbaijani territory.”
According to Cirielli, there are no Azerbaijani troops on Armenian territory, it was the Armenians who liberated four illegally occupied villages after decades. “There are no disputed territories because Armenia itself declared it so; the only issue raised by the Azerbaijanis concerns the ambiguous provisions in Armenia’s constitution, which could be interpreted as revanchist,” the Italian diplomat stressed.
Cirielli emphasized that the European Parliament’s resolution certainly does not aid the swift approval of a peace treaty.
“The European Union should actually be interested in stabilizing the Caucasus with a neutral and balanced stance that brings the two countries closer, rather than exacerbating their ongoing tensions. This is something our US partners do very well, and so does our Foreign Minister Tajani, who has met with both parties involved on multiple occasions, with much appreciation of the US,” highlighted the delegate of the Italian Council of Ministers for the Caucasus.