Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 7
By Seba Aghayeva – Trend:
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs offer to hold a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers within the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg, Elmar Mammadyarov, Azerbaijan’s foreign minister, told reporters in Baku Nov. 7.
“Azerbaijan gave its consent,” said the minister.
He noted that there is inactivity in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“After the meeting in St. Petersburg, we hoped for a progress and we would like to restore the St. Petersburg atmosphere, but the Armenian side, leadership of that country hinders the process,” added Mammadyarov.
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.