Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 23
By Anakhanum Hidayatova – Trend:
Armed conflicts have caused much suffering, displacement and destruction in parts of the OSCE area, and there can be no military solutions to these conflicts, Austria’s Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sebastian Kurz said.
He was giving speech at the UN Security Council meeting.
“We have to find ways to enable political solutions [to the conflicts],” he said.
“As chair-in-office, we will assist all efforts to achieve progress on the other conflict situations in the OSCE area, in particular regarding the Transnistrian Settlement Process, the conflict in Georgia and the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Kurz said.
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.
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