Azerbaijan, Baku, 1 April / Trend corr K. Ramazanova/ The official Baku calls on the co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group engaged in settling of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to infer from the Azerbaijan's recent message.
"The co-chairs monopolize the negotiations and direct them into that course which is good for them," the Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said to the journalists on 1 April.
The official Baku sent an inquiry to the OSCE to get informed about the replacement of the co-chairing countries or the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. The official Baku has taken such rough measures because on 14 March the Minsk Group's co-chairing countries did not support the Resolution on the Situation in the Occupied Territory of Azerbaijan at the UN General Assembly's meeting.
Azimov said that Azerbaijan did not state its intention to replace the co-chairs. "The letter which Azerbaijan sent to the Minsk Group was a tactical step. The strategic step is that Azerbaijan observes not full use of the Minsk Group's potential," Azimov said.
Azimov said that Azerbaijan is ready to continue the negotiations to remove the gap in the main principles of settling the conflict, which were presented by the Minsk Group to Azerbaijan and Armenia in autumn 2007. "The territorial integrity is non-alternative issue for negotiations and Azerbaijan is ready to continue the negotiations only if the issue is provided," he said.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to the Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, the Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven neighboring 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.
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