Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.4
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, James Warlick (the US), Igor Popov (Russia) and Pierre Andrieu (France) and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk on Dec.4, acting spokesperson of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend.
The meeting took place as part of the 21st OSCE Ministerial Council that kicked off in Basel, Switzerland.
The sides discussed the process of negotiations on the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the plans and proposals of the co-chairs in this regard for 2015.
Reiterating Azerbaijan's position with regard to the settlement of the conflict, Mammadyarov stressed that for the resolution of the conflict, first and foremost, the armed forces of Armenia must be withdrawn from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
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 two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Edited by SI
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Seba Aghayeva is deputy head of Trend Agency's Azerbaijani news service, follow her on Twitter: @Asebaa