France fully committed to negotiated, lasting solution to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

France remains fully committed to a negotiated and lasting solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, reads a statement issued by the Permanent Representation of France to the OSCE on the first anniversary of cessation of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone on April 2-5, 2016.

“France reiterates its belief that the status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh is unsustainable and that there can be no military solution to the conflict,” the statement said.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

The OSCE Minsk Group, established in 1994 and co-chaired by Moscow, Washington and Paris, could not arrange for a meaningful pathway forward to end the conflict and start moving toward the end of the occupation.

The permanent mission further noted that France, as a co-chair of the Minsk Group, had worked with its Russian and American partners to stop the fighting and resume negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. 

“France calls on the parties to respect the commitments made at the Vienna summit on May 16, 2016 and the St. Petersburg summit on June 20, 2016, especially the ceasefire regime, confidence-building measures and resumption of negotiations,” the statement said.

“As the French president reiterated during his recent talks with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts in Paris, France remains fully committed to a negotiated and lasting solution to the conflict for the stability and prosperity of the whole region,” the permanent representation noted.

The Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia confirmed in a joint statement after the meeting in St. Petersburg the agreements reached at the summit in Vienna, which were aimed at stabilizing the situation in the conflict zone and the creation of an atmosphere conducive to advancing the peace process.

To this end, they agreed, in particular, to increase the number of international observers in the conflict zone.