TODAY.AZ / Politics

OSCE MG co-chairs to schedule Azerbaijani, Armenian FMs meeting soon

02 September 2015 [14:30] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs will hold a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in September to discuss organizing a presidential meeting this year.

“The co-chairs will bring the foreign ministers together on the margins of the UN General Assembly in September. We will discuss with the ministers the possibility of holding the next presidential summit later this year,” James Warlick, the U.S. representative to the OSCE Minsk Group, told AzerNews.

A prior meeting between Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan took place in Paris, France last October through an initiative by the French president.

The co-chairs are working on a presidential meeting by end of the year to find a peaceful resolution to the long-standing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

They also discussed this issue during their latest visit to the region. Co-Chairs Warlick, Igor Popov of Russia, and Pierre Andrieu of France traveled to Yerevan and Baku in July to discuss the issue with the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents.

In the meantime, Warlick noted that the co-chairs plan to visit the region in the fall, although there are no fixed dates for the visit.

Furthermore commenting on the so-called "elections" in the "self-governing bodies" of the separatist regime in the occupied Azerbaijani territories scheduled for September 13, the co-chair has ruled out accepting the outcomes of such "elections".

“The United States does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state; therefore, we do not accept the results of these elections as affecting Nagorno-Karabakh’s legal status,” Warlick said.

Azerbaijan condemned the so-called "elections" evaluating it as an open violation of international law and stating that it does not have any legal weight.

Warlick emphasized that these "elections" will not impact the results of the peace talks on resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“We also stress that they in no way prejudge the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh or the outcome of the ongoing negotiations to bring a lasting and peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the co-chair said.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, the Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France, and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs dubbed the Madrid Principles. However, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.

Commenting on the recent escalation of tension along the contact line of Armenian-Azerbaijani troops, Warlick said the co-chairs continue to propose confidence-building measures for ensuring the ceasefire regime.

“For most of the year, the situation along the Line of Contact and Armenia-Azerbaijan border has been relatively stable. We have appealed to the sides to reduce tensions and strictly respect the ceasefire. We also continue to propose confidence-building measures that would reinforce the ceasefire, creating a more positive environment for negotiations that could lead to a settlement,” Warlick said.

The Armenian armed forces have recently aggravated tensions on the frontline by violating the ceasefire regime with Azerbaijan over 160-170 times in recent days using the 60 mm and 82 mm caliber rocket-propelled grenades and large-caliber machine guns.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/143366.html

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