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France changes its OSCE MG co-chair â€“ embassy - UPDATED

France changes its OSCE MG co-chair â€“ embassy - <span style="color: red;">UPDATED

21 October 2016 08:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Malahat Najafova - APA. France has changed its OSCE Minsk Group (MG) co-chair on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the French Embassy in Azerbaijan confirmed to APA.

Co-chair Pierre Andrieu was replaced by Stefan Visconti, said the embassy.

The embassy added that it is yet unknown when Stefan Visconti will take up his post as OSCE MG co-chair.

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10:25

Baku - APA. France has changed its OSCE Minsk Group (MG) co-chair on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, according to France’s Legifrance.gouv.fr.

Pierre Andrieu has been replaced by Stefan Visconti, according to the report.

The Nagorno-Karabakh 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-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh 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-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.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-Karabakh.