Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.18
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
OSCE Minsk Group urges Yerevan and Baku to promote confidence-building measures, OSCE Minsk Group US Co-Chair James Warlick told the Armenian Mediamax agency.
"We are interested in any steps that can build trust and confidence, bring people together," said Warlick. "Of course, there are some government-to-government things that we would welcome and would like to see happen, but also we have non-governmental [approaches]. So when we see there are opportunities for Armenians and Azerbaijanis to meet and interact wherever, we welcome that."
The Co-Chairs hope that Armenian athletes will be able to participate in the Baku European Games because they believe that such people-to-people events would be helpful in the future, he said.
"I understand that this is not easy to do and sometimes things go wrong but we can't let that stand in the way," Warlick said. "People-to-people contacts are going to be important for really having a lasting settlement. When the day comes and it will come, that there is a signed agreement that brings a peace in Nagorno Karabakh, it will be a great day not only for Armenia and Azerbaijan, but for the entire region. But it cannot be only a signature on the piece of paper, there has to be more, something that supports it, undergirds the peace, and that's what we need to be working on."
OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs James Warlick (USA), Igor Popov (Russia), Pierre Andre (France) were on a visit to Azerbaijan on February 15-16, to Armenia - on February 17. Then it is planned to visit the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
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 two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
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