Protracted conflicts could be moved away OSCE area

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

New Chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe expressed believe that there was room to move away from the status quo in relation to protracted conflicts in the OSCE area and pledged that high-level contacts between the parties will continue.

Ivica Dacic, Serbian Foreign Minister outlined priorities for the 2015 Serbian Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe at the first Permanent Council meeting of the year in Vienna on January 15.

Noting that the situation in and around Ukraine continues to pose a serious threat to the stability of the region and beyond, he said Serbia is ready to act as an honest broker in the peace process.

“Impartiality and transparency is our way,” he said.

Dacic called on the representatives of the OSCE participating states to join forces in these very difficult times for the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian regions and for global security.

“The peace process is essential. Dialogue and compromise, peaceful resolution of disputes, confidence-building, solidarity, responsibility and co-operation were never this important,” he said.

Earlier, Dacic said as the OSCE chairing country, Serbia intends to focus on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

He noted that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be a priority for Serbia’s presidency in the OSCE.

Also, Dacic’s visit to South Caucasus is expected to take place in the coming months.

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.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.