OSCE: Mediators prepared for “intensified negotiation process” on Karabakh
Karabakh | 08.02.15 | 11:51
International mediators have expressed their readiness to host “an
intensified negotiation process” on Nagorno-Karabakh after their
latest meeting focused on the resolution of the longstanding conflict.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE)
Chairperson-in-Office, Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic met with
the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the
Russian Federation, James Warlick of the United States, and Pierre
Andrieu of France) in Munich, Germany, on Saturday to discuss
developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. The OSCE Secretary
General Lamberto Zannier and the Personal Representative of the CiO
Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk also joined the meeting.
“We all agree that the military situation along the Line of Contact
and Armenia-Azerbaijan border is deteriorating, posing a threat to
regional stability and endangering the lives of civilians. The 12
casualties and 18 wounded cited by Ambassador Kasprzyk’s monitoring
reports in January represent the highest confirmed number of victims
in the first month of a year since the 1994 ceasefire agreement. After
2014, in which approximately 60 people lost their lives, we are
alarmed that this disturbing violent trend has continued,” the OSCE
chairman-in-office and the Minsk Group co-chairs said in a joint
statement.
“There is no military solution to the conflict, and the sides must
cease using force. We call on the sides to end incursions, cease
targeting villages and civilians, stop the threat of reprisals and the
use of asymmetric force, and take additional steps to reduce tensions
and strengthen the ceasefire. We find it unacceptable that the
security guarantees are not fully observed during OSCE monitoring
exercises.
“Additionally, we reaffirm the December 4, 2014 joint statement of the
Heads of Delegation of the Co-Chair countries at the Basel Ministerial
Council, calling on the sides to settle humanitarian issues, including
the return of bodies and prisoners, in the spirit of the Astrakhan
statement of October 2010.
“The Minsk Group Co-Chairs, with the full support of the
Chairperson-in-Office, are prepared to host an intensified negotiation
process that can bring to a peaceful end a conflict that has scarred
the region for too long. We strongly urge the sides to find the
political will to begin this process immediately without excuses.”