The PACE Monitoring Committee’s special Sub-Committee on conflicts between member states of the Council of Europe held on Thursday its first meeting as part of the Assembly’s spring session.

The latest developments on the line of contact between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops were discussed at the meeting.

Though the details were not publicized as the discussions were confidential, it became clear that the Armenian side refused to continue discussions in this format.

Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov, who had participated in the meeting, told that although the Armenian side hade made statements full of lies and slanders in the PACE sessions, when concrete facts are being discussed at the Committee’s meetings, they say the discussions are unimportant.

“We promised not to say anything of the discussions’ details. All I can say is that there took place exchange of ideas and the Armenian side made a few more statements far from constructiveness. What is even more interesting is that they run away from discussions on concrete facts. And at the Assembly’s plenary meetings, they just try to present lies. But when it comes to concrete discussions and facts they say the discussions are unimportant and need to be closed,” Seyidov stressed.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.