Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 13
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
Switzerland very strongly supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group for peaceful resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Swiss Ambassador to Azerbaijan Philipp Stalder told Trend.
“We think that both conflicting sides should sit down at the negotiation table and hold meaningful peace negotiations in a more structured way,” the ambassador said. “Of course, any conflict has negative impact on the neighboring countries and the whole region and that is, unfortunately, also the case for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
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.