OSCE chair, Russian FM to mull Karabakh conflict

OSCE chair, Russian FM to mull Karabakh conflict
# 12 January 2017 14:01 (UTC +04:00)

OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will discuss the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Jan. 12, APA’s Moscow correspondent reported.

Kurz is due to pay a visit to Russia’s capital on Jan. 17-18, Zakharova informed.

Kurz will have a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, during which Russia-Austria relations and the two countries’ cooperation within OSCE will be discussed, she said.

The sides will also mull the ongoing conflicts in the OSCE area, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the Ukrainian crisis, added the spokesperson.

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.

Nagorno Garabagh

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