STATEMENT BY THE OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS
AZG Armenian Daily
12/05/2009
Karabakh conflict
According to the official website of the OSCE Minsk Group, the
Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Ambassador Yury Merzlyakov of
Russia, Ambassador Bernard Fassier of France, and Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State Matthew Bryza of the United States – yesterday
issued the following statement:
"Fifteen years ago large-scale hostilities ceased in Nagorno-Karabakh,
in what had become the most violent conflict on the territory of the
former Soviet Union. The leaders at the time made a courageous and
farsighted decision to instruct their military commanders to sign an
agreement on an immediate ceasefire with no fixed term.
Unfortunately, this ceasefire has been imperfect and tragically
every year lives are lost along the front lines. We sincerely hope
that a peace settlement, towards which the parties are now working,
will allow new generations to grow up in Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Nagorno-Karabakh without experiencing the horrors of war.
Until then, we call on the parties to implement the provisions of
the ceasefire, the "Proposals on strengthening the ceasefire in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict" agreed in 1995, as well as the Co-Chairs’
proposals at the 2008 Helsinki Ministerial Conference to pull back
snipers from the front lines.
We express our hope that the present leaders will be able to overcome
the complex causes and difficult consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict and create an atmosphere of security, trust, cooperation and
fruitful communication between peoples in the region, allowing them
to live in peace as good neighbors. We further hope the leaders will
succeed, in cooperation with the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, in finalizing
their Basic Principles for a peaceful settlement."