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Nagorno Garabagh

OSCE MG co-chairs welcome Azerbaijani presidentâ€™s efforts to start discussion on Karabakh status

25 October 2016 14:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Malahat Najafova – APA. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev started discussions on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, and we have to welcome this, US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick told reporters in Yerevan Oct. 25, according to news.am.

He said the status of Nagorno-Karabakh must be also discussed along with the liberation of adjacent districts.

“We very often refer to the comprehensive settlement of the conflict. We must understand that it is necessary to discuss all the elements. We can’t discuss any matter out of the context. It also covers the issue of refugees and IDPs, the mandate of peacekeepers. All of these should be discussed as a package,” added Warlick.

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.