Baku urges OSCE to intensify activities on Karabakh conflict resolution

Baku urges OSCE to intensify activities on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

"At a meeting with the OSCE secretary general, the position of Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement was made clear. We want the organisation to intensify activities on this issue so that progress can been achieved. Despite 20 years of the OSCE Minsk Group dealing with the matter there is still no result," Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a press briefing on Monday following his meeting with the OSCE secretary general, Lamberto Zannier.

At the meeting they discussed issues of bilateral interest and issues of mutual cooperation, the foreign minister said.

"The OSCE Secretary General put forward specific proposals in connection with elections to be held in Azerbaijan which we will consider. In addition, he introduced a number of proposals for other projects on which we will work," Mammadyarov said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.


/Trend/