EU President Calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan not to be Prisoners of the Past

The EU's "Eastern Partnership" will be unsuccessful if the tension in the South Caucasus continues, said the Chairman of the Council of the EU, Herman Van Rompay on July 4, speaking in the National Assembly of Armenia.

    According to him, a series of incidents in the Karabakh conflict zone in early June, which led to the deaths of soldiers from both sides, is a tragedy, and all measures should be taken to prevent them in the future.

    The head of the EU called on the parties of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to follow the advice of the leaders of the co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group to comply with the ceasefire. Rompay noted that the parties should refrain from "rhetorical temptations" and not be "prisoners of the past."

   Chairman of the Council of the EU added that Brussels is ready to assist in the process of resolving the conflict within the OSCE Minsk by additional leverage, helping to improve the level of mutual trust between the parties of the conflict.

    One of these instruments, according to Rompay, is the program "Eastern Partnership", the participants of which, in addition to Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Georgia, are also Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to Rompay, if the "Eastern Partnership” does not give the desired results, the situation in our region will continue to be tense and a threat of war will remain.

    In his speech, the chairman of the EU also mentioned the issue on normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations. At the same time, he said that dialogue between Yerevan and Ankara should be established without preconditions. -02D-