TODAY.AZ / Politics

Karabakh conflict settlement to be priority during Austria’s OSCE chairmanship

14 July 2016 [15:00] - TODAY.AZ

/By Azernews/

By Gunay Camal

On the background of the quite dangerous status-quo, the international community is enforcing mediation efforts on solution of the Armenian-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Amid an upsurge of hopes for peaceful resolution of the bitter conflict, Austria announced that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement will remain among the priorities during the country’s OSCE chairmanship in 2017.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, while speaking about priorities during his country’s upcoming OSCE chairmanship, said on July 14 that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is of particular concern.

“The OSCE considers its settlement as important, especially after the escalation of tension along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in April,” he said, stressing that Austria will continue working for settlement of all conflicts in the OSCE area.

Germany, the current OSCE chair-country, has repeatedly voiced its support to the negotiation efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chairs over the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The format of the OSCE Minsk Co-Chairmanship is the only authorized collective mediation group engaged in resolution of the long lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The MG co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France, has been mediating the conflict settlement since 1992, but so far failed to achieve a tangible result. 

The peace talks didn’t see any strong commitment or notable meeting for the past two years until the early 2016.

The April outbreak of the tensions revealed a vacuum in the peace process and urgency of finding a just resolution to the conflict. Almost everyone involved recognized that the renewal of a war would be extremely bloody and destructive.

Thus, the fighting and the resumed peace talks with participation of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents make this a moment of opportunity. However, Yerevan still continues its political provocations, while Baku has warned that it will sit at the table of negotiations only if the talks are meaningful.

Holding talks for the sake of talks or seeking to keep a status-quo in the decades-old ceasefire is no longer an option. The international actors, who sometimes preferred to turn blind eye to this hot point in the South Caucasus, now face the reality that the risk of a dangerous conflict can cover the wider region.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/152556.html

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