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Ramiz Mehdiyev: Minsk Group failed to produce desired result

30 November 2016 11:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. There have been no considerable changes in the highly dangerous situation along the line of contact between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops since the 2016 April battle, reads an article by Head of Azerbaijan’s Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev.

The author noted that neither the presidents’ meetings nor the OSCE Minsk Group’s mediation produced a desired result.

“The world’s leading organizations and different political figures are involved in the efforts to solve the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, to restore the talks,” the PA head said, adding. “But for the time being, no one can promise that the ceasefire regime in Nagorno-Karabakh will result in a fair truce in the future. The war has not ended on the front line, nor has it come to an end in the diplomatic sphere or in the media. For some, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict beneficial in terms of ugly business and ugly policy.”

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.