OSCE MINSK CO-CHAIRMEN TO MEET IN AZERBAIJAN SEPT. 18
RIA Novosti
September 12, 2007
Russia
BAKU, September 12 (RIA Novosti) – The co-chairmen of the Minsk OSCE
Group on the Azerbaijani-Armenian dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh will
meet in Azerbaijan September 18, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
During the meeting with the Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov the co-chairmen will discuss the current negotiation
process and further ways of settling the long-running conflict,
Hazar Ibragim, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk
Group was established in 1992 to encourage a peaceful resolution to
the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The group is co-chaired by U.S., Russian and French representatives.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely
Armenian population, first erupted in 1988 after the fall of the
Soviet Union, when the region claimed independence from Azerbaijan
to join Armenia.
Over 30,000 people were killed on both sides between 1988 and 1994,
and over 100 died following a 1994 ceasefire. Nagorno-Karabakh
remained in Armenian hands, but tensions between Azerbaijan and
Armenia have persisted.