Nagorno-Karabakh’s sub-committee activities must be revived, Luis Maria de Puig, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said. “We tried to harmonize the positions of the two countries,” he said in the press conference on the first day of the winter session of PACE.

“I rule out armed solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is also PACE’s position. The conflict should be settled through peaceful ways. We must move forward through dialogues. The new PACE president will continue this activities,” the PACE president said.

In 2010, Luis Maria de Puig’s mandate as PACE president ended. Turkish MP Movlud Cavushoglu was elected as the new PACE president.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the occupied territories.