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US making efforts to help settle Karabakh conflict: ambassador

21 October 2016 15:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Malahat Najafova – APA. The position of the United States in regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unchanged, noted the ambassador, US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta told reporters on Friday.

The US, in cooperation with other OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, as well as Azerbaijan and Armenia, is making efforts to contribute to resoling the decades-old Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, noted the ambassador.

“As part of these efforts, US co-chair Warlick and other co-chairs are coming to Azerbaijan tomorrow in order to give impetus to the conflict’s settlement,” added Cekuta. “Azerbaijan’s president has made statements recently expressing Azerbaijan’s determination to settle the conflict. I have informed Washington of these statements.”

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.