NATO urges Armenia, Azerbaijan to continue efforts for Karabakh conflict’s peaceful resolution

NATO takes an interest in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's settlement and encourages the conflict sides to continue their efforts aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict, NATO press service told Trend May 27 commenting on the resumption of negotiations to resolve the conflict.

"Peaceful resolution of conflicts is a core value of NATO, and is one of the core commitments that all Partner countries commit to when joining the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program," said the press service.

The Partnership for Peace (PfP) is a program of practical bilateral cooperation between individual Euro-Atlantic partner countries and NATO. The program was created in 1994.

The press service said also that NATO has no direct role in negotiations aimed at resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which are being conducted in the framework of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

/By Trend/