Baku, Azerbaijan, July 3
Trend:
The OSCE Minsk Group has not yet achieved the desired result in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu said in an interview with TASS.
“The format itself, which includes three permanent members of the UN Security Council, looks very serious. Namely these countries have huge political weight and relevant experience, developed for decades if not centuries of their national diplomacies’ activities,” he said.
“However, as we see, the institution of triple co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group, established in 1997, has still not led to the desired result – the start of eliminating military consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and its political settlement.”
“Azerbaijan has been emphasizing that the time has long come to take effective steps to resolve the conflict,” Bulbuloglu said.
The current status quo, particularly the ongoing occupation of Azerbaijan’s territory, is unacceptable, he noted.
“Heads of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries also pointed this in their statements in 2009-2013. That is, now conditions should be ensured for continuing substantive talks with the intent to achieve tangible results.”
He added that talks should be specific, because in this particular case, it is the result that matters and not the process.
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.