OSCE: Ministers reaffirm commitment to peaceful resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

/By Azernews/

By Gunay Camal

The Azerbaijani and Armenian ministers confirmed the Presidents’ agreement on the next round of talks to be held in June with an aim to resuming negotiations on a comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The OSCE Minsk Group, a mediation group established to solve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, announced about it in its statement released on June 3.

MG co-chairs, including Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, James Warlick of the United States of America, and Pierre Andrieu of France met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Brussels on May 31 and with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in Paris on June 2 to discuss implementation of the decisions from the 16 May summit in Vienna.

The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, also participated in the meetings.

The Co-chairs stated that the ministers reaffirmed their commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“The Co-Chairs delivered to the ministers for the consideration of the sides draft documents on expanding the existing office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and establishing an OSCE investigative mechanism,” the statement reads.

The May 16 meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan in Vienna was their first face-to-face encounter since the April hostilities.

The presidents agreed on following of ceasefire, as well as on “a next round of talks, to be held in June at a place to be mutually agreed, with an aim to resuming negotiations on a comprehensive settlement.”

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The bloody Nagorno-Karabakh war left 700,000 civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the regions adjoining it, as well as the regions bordering with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh without homes.

Moreover, 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia and became refugees due to Armenia's ethnic cleansing policy after the emergence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.

Despite the official ceasefire, each year the conflict becomes a cause of the deaths of dozens of civilians and military. The latest outbreak of violence on the contact proved that it is impossible to resolve the conflict by keeping a status quo.