Austria, Vienna, 14 March / corr. Trend A. Alasgarov/ The co-chairmen of OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) on the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict do not support the draft resolution on Situation in Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan introduced to the UN General Assembly.
"The draft resolution will not gain our support. All the Minsk Group co-chairman countries are of the same opinion. The draft does not indicate on what both the chairmen and conflicting parties were working towards," Yuri Merzlyakov, the Russian co-chairman of Minsk Group said to Trend on 14 March.
On March 14, the UN General Assembly will discuss the Resolution on Situation in Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan. In a new resolution Azerbaijan calls on UN Secretary General to deliver a comprehensive report to implement the resolution. The draft resolution requires an immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian Armed Forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan urges UN member states to confirm the indefeasible right of the people driven out from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan to return to their land and states the need to provide conditions for them to do so including the full rehabilitation of the territories damaged by the conflict.
Azerbaijan calls on the UN to contribute to the establishment of effective democratic system of self-government in Nagorno-Karabakh region within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. "It is important to provide normal, secure and equal living conditions both for the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan," the draft resolution stated.
Merzlyakov said that the Resolution is too one -sided. "The draft resolution indicates those items which are interesting only to Azerbaijan. The project is one-sided, unbalanced and not timely at all. We all did not expect this," Merzlyakov said.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.