Erdogan: OSCE MG couldn’t resolve Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

The OSCE Minsk Group couldn’t resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, the country’s Haber7 TV channel reported on June 7.

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

Erdogan noted that the OSCE Minsk Group’s activity on the resolution of the conflict is ineffective.

He added that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries are members of the UN Security Council.

“When one of these countries stands for the settlement of a conflict, the other one puts a veto on this,” Erdogan said, stressing that this is the main obstacle to the resolution of conflicts.

The Minsk Group spearheads the OSCE's efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is co-chaired by France, the Russian Federation, and the United States. Although the OSCE Minsk Group deals with the issue for over two decades, its activities have brought no breakthrough results so far.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.