Moscow: No information about next meeting of Azerbaijani, Armenian FMs

Moscow: No information about next meeting of Azerbaijani, Armenian FMs
# 31 August 2017 15:49 (UTC +04:00)

There is no information about the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday, an APA correspondent reported from Moscow.

“We don’t have information about the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers. If there is an agreement on the meeting, we will inform you,” said Zakharova.

As for the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s statement on the alleged ceasefire violation by Azerbaijan during the OSCE monitoring on the border between the two countries, Zakharova stated that experts should investigate the incident and give it their assessment.

Asked about the possible involvement of Nagorno-Karabakh as a party in the negotiation process, the spokesperson noted that Russia’s stance on this issue is clear.

“You know our stance on this issue. Therefore, I can redirect you to our previous comments,” she added.

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 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-Karabakh.

Nagorno Garabagh

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