BAKU URGES OSCE TO INTENSIFY ACTIVITIES ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT
Trend
July 9 2012
Azerbaijan
Baku urges OSCE to intensify activities on the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict settlement.
“At a meeting with the OSCE secretary general, the position of
Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement was made clear.
We want the organisation to intensify activities on this issue so that
progress can been achieved. Despite 20 years of the OSCE Minsk Group
dealing with the matter there is still no result,” Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a press briefing on Monday following
his meeting with the OSCE secretary general, Lamberto Zannier.
At the meeting they discussed issues of bilateral interest and issues
of mutual cooperation, the foreign minister said.
“The OSCE Secretary General put forward specific proposals in
connection with elections to be held in Azerbaijan which we will
consider. In addition, he introduced a number of proposals for other
projects on which we will work,” Mammadyarov said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France and the U.S. –
are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.