Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.7.
By Nigar Guliyeva- Trend:
President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, George Tsereteli said that increasingly intense hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh are a cause for deep concern.
Tsereteli, addressing foreign ministers at the OSCE’s 24th Ministerial Council in Vienna on Dec.7, urged renewed attention to conflict mediation and stressed that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the ongoing crisis in and around Ukraine must be dealt with.
"Coming from Georgia, I can attest both to the value of the OSCE’s work on the ground, and to the need for renewed attention to conflict mediation. We have our own protracted conflict and occupation of the territories, but as President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, I am equally concerned by all conflicts around the OSCE area," he said, adding that increasingly intense hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh are a cause for deep concern.
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.