Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are not going to visit Azerbaijan in the near future, Trend learned from OSCE.
“The Minsk Group Co-Chairs have no immediate plans to visit Baku,” said the organization, answering the question about possibility of the co-chairs’ visit to Azerbaijan after being in Armenia on June 12-14.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America) together with the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, met with Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan, and President Armen Sarkissian during an introductory visit to Yerevan on 12-14 June.
The co-chairs and the Armenian officials reviewed the status of negotiations and discussed next steps to move the process [of the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict] forward, including a ministerial meeting in the near future.
They also exchanged views on the current situation on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and the line of contact, underscoring the importance of maintaining a constructive environment.
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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