Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The communication and transport committee of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil has urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to step up efforts for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, AzerTag news agency reported.

The document has been issued based on the proposal of the member and chairman of the committee Rodrigo Maia on December 11.

The document refers to the Nagorno-Karabakh region as part of Azerbaijan.

The Chamber of Deputies is a federal legislative body and the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil.

"We call on OSCE Minsk Group, Azerbaijan and Armenia to increase efforts towards peaceful solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, on the basis of the countries' sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders," the document says.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

As a result of Baku`s active foreign policy, the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan, the Khojali genocide, committed by Armenian in 1992 and the Nagorno-Karabakh question have been brought to the agenda of parliaments of many countries.

In this regard, legislative bodies of many countries have adopted resolutions condemning Armenia`s military aggression against Azerbaijan, the crime committed by Armenians against the peaceful people in the Khojali town of Azerbaijan has been recognized as a genocide, as well as made statements calling on settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the countries` sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders.

The parliaments of Pakistan, Mexico, Colombia, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Jordan, as well as legislative bodies of about 20 states of the Unites States, including Texas, New-Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Western Virginia, New-Jersey and Tennessee are adopted relevant documents..

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted a final Cairo Communiqué in February 2013, in the summit held in Egypt's capital, naming the Khojaly tragedy as genocide against humanity. The Communiqué calls on the international community to recognize the genocide.

A resolution adopted by foreign minister of OIC member countries in capital of Guinea, Conakry on December 9-11, includes a special paragraph regarding the "Justice to Khojali" campaign.

According to this paragraph, the OIC Foreign Ministers Council "welcomes the activities of the campaign and urges member states to take an active part in the campaign at the national and international levels in order to recognize the Khojaly genocide as an act of crime against humanity".

OIC Ministerial Council first recognized the Khojaly tragedy as genocide during its session held in November 2012 in Djibouti.

613 civilians, including 106 women, 70 elderly and 83 children, were killed in the Khojaly massacre. A total of 1,000 civilians were disabled. Eight families were exterminated, and 25 children lost both parents, while 130 children lost one parent. Moreover, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 remains unknown.