International Crisis Group to prepare three reports on Nagorno Karabakh conflict this year

"Despite increased international interest, including the personal involvement of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the prospects of a resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict now seem at its lowest point in years", said the International Crisis Group in its annual report.

"The failure to secure a "Basic Principles" agreement before the December Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) summit in Astana – the first in a decade – was deeply troubling. Te political deadlock was accompanied by an increase in violence over the summer–fall", said the group.

The International Crisis Group noted the key issues it will focus on this year. The Nagorno Karabakh problem, Kosovo-Serbia negotiations, Cyprus conflict are among its priorities in 2011.

This year the International Crisis Group will prepare several reports on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. First report will focus on worrying developments on the ground, including the rise in violent incidents, violations of the ceasefire. Crisis Group plans to follow up its briefing on the potential for conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh with a second report that will propose ways to decrease tensions and, through incremental steps, move the negotiations process forward.

The third briefing will assess the political, economic and social conditions of some 800,000 Azeris displaced from Nagorno Karabakh region in the late 1980s and 1990s, focusing on their attitudes to a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.


/APA/