Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 8
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has received OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and discussed with them the topical issues of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Sept. 8.
According to the ministry’s message, Lavrov and the OSCE MG co-chairs James Warlick of the US, Igor Popov of Russia and Pierre Andrieu of France, as well as Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement, including the implementation of the agreements reached at the summits on the conflict’s settlement in Vienna on May 16 and in St. Petersburg on June 20.
The sides also discussed the current situation on the line of contact between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.
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 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
In a joint statement following the meeting in St. Petersburg on June 20, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan confirmed the agreements reached at the recent Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Vienna aimed at stabilizing the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and creating an atmosphere contributing to the peace process.
The sides agreed to increase the number of international observers in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.