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OSCE’s Andrzej Kasprzyk and Armenian defense minister discussed Nagorno Garabagh conflict

20 November 2019 18:15 (UTC +04:00)

Minister of Defense of Armenia Davit Tonoyan met with Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk on November 20 in Yerevan, APA reports citing Armenpress.

During the meeting, Tonoyan and Kasprzyk discussed the process of the Nagorno Garabagh conflict settlement.

Davit Tonoyan and Andrzej Kasprzyk noted the importance of the introduction of mechanisms for strengthening trust at the Line of Contact and the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border.

Note that the Nagorno Garabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno Garabagh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno Garabagh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno Garabagh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno Garabagh.