Baku, Azerbaijan, May 27
Trend:
It is necessary to strengthen parliamentary support to the process of peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Kristian Vigenin, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's special representative on the South Caucasus.
Vigenin made the remarks at a meeting with Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, the press service of the country's Foreign Ministry said May 27.
Mammadyarov, in turn, said that for the resolution of the conflict, first of all, the Armenian armed forces must withdraw from the occupied Azerbaijani territories and the aggression must come to an end.
Informing Vigenin about the current situation around the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the meeting of the two countries' presidents in Vienna with mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Mammadyarov stressed the inadmissibility of altering the internationally recognized borders of states by the use of force.
During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on pressing issues on the OSCE agenda, the ways of developing the cooperation between the OSCE PA and Azerbaijan, regional issues, perspectives of cooperation between the OSCE PA and Azerbaijan, as well as the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
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.