Azerbaijan, Baku, June 9 /Trend, V.Zhavoronkova/
The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassadors Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States, and Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, released a statement today as a result of their visit to region.
"The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group traveled June 6-9 to Baku, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Yerevan. Joined by Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, the Co-Chairs met separately with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian President Serge Sargsian, and the de facto authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh, the statement says.
In preparation for the upcoming meeting of Presidents Medvedev, Aliyev, and Sargsian, the Co-Chairs discussed with the sides steps to finalize and endorse the Basic Principles as a framework for a comprehensive peace settlement, as urged by Presidents Medvedev, Obama, and Sarkozy in their May 26 joint statement in Deauville, France.
On June 7, the Co-Chairs crossed the Line of Contact by foot in the Agdam region. This was the third such crossing by the Co-Chairs in ten months - as many as were completed in the previous sixteen years combined - demonstrating that the sides can cooperate to implement and observe fully the 1994 ceasefire. In that regard, the Co-Chairs called upon the parties to avoid any provocative actions or statem
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.