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“I am sad and angry about the tragic loss of lives, both civilian and military, caused by the new outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan. These hostilities are escalating rapidly into an all-out war which seriously threatens the stability of the region,” said the Chair of PACE’s Monitoring Committee, Michael Aastrup Jensen (Denmark, ALDE).

“At a meeting yesterday, the Monitoring Committee - which I chair - discussed these deeply worrying developments in the presence of Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians, and urged both countries to fully honour their obligations to the Council of Europe and to respect the European Convention on Human Rights. It called on both states to agree on an immediate ceasefire without preconditions and to return to the negotiating table under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Conference. There is no alternative to a peaceful resolution of this conflict,” added Mr Jensen.

“I again recall that when becoming members of the Council of Europe, both countries committed themselves to resolve their disputes in a peaceful manner. That obligation, which is incumbent upon all member States, also means that all member States should refrain from any actions or discourse which encourage belligerent states to resolve their disputes by force. In that respect the members of the committee deplored inflammatory rhetoric by Turkey, as well as reported direct involvement in the conflict, and called upon it to cease doing so immediately,” he concluded.