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Azerbaijani FM: Vienna meeting opens good opportunity to start substantial talks on Karabakh conflict settlement

17 May 2016 10:01 (UTC +04:00)

He was commenting on the meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Vienna on May 16.

“I agree with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s assessment that yesterday’s meeting opens up a good opportunity to start the substantial talks on well-known step-by-step approach on conflict resolution,” Mammadyarov said.

The FM noted that these talks must start as soon as possible and produce tangible results so awaited by people in the region and the international community.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.