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OSCE to keep pursuing peaceful solution of Karabakh conflict: Kurz

21 January 2017 [10:17] - TODAY.AZ

By  Trend


The OSCE will not slacken its efforts and will continue to pursue a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, OSCE chairperson-in-office, foreign minister of Austria, Sebastian Kurz said in an interview with Armenian news agency Mediamax.

Kurz noted that despite strong efforts from the OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chairs, the year 2016 was marked by harsh set-backs with regard to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, with intensified fighting and increased hardships for the local population.

“Austria, as chair of the OSCE in 2017, therefore calls on the sides to focus on dialogue and diplomacy and stands ready to strengthen the peace process and contribute to the negotiations,” he said.

“As chairperson-in-office I will visit Armenia and Azerbaijan later this year and hope to give renewed impetus to these negotiations during this trip,” he noted. “Concrete ideas will be presented and consultations to this effect are already taking place in line with the efforts of the Minsk Group co-chairs and conditional on the receptiveness of the sides.”

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.


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