Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 7
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
Possibility of holding a 3+2 format meeting – three OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, plus Azerbaijani and Armenian FMs – on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Hamburg was discussed but there is still no final agreement, said the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova during a briefing Dec. 7.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has earlier said that Yerevan had not yet responded to the France’s proposal to hold the 3+2 format meeting in Hamburg.
“It means that Armenia avoids the negotiations, rendering no support to the peace process,” according to him.
Mammadyarov noted that Baku supports France’s proposal to hold the 3+2 format meeting on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Hamburg.
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.