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OSCE PA Special Representative calls for parliamentary support to Nagorno-Karabakh peace resolutionÂ

24 May 2016 16:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Turbat Baghirova – APA. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Representative on the South Caucasus, Kristian Vigenin (MP, Bulgaria), today concluded a two-day visit to Armenia and called for increased parliamentary support for efforts for a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In Yerevan, the Special Representative met with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Vice-President of the Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov, and with senior members of parliament.

“Following the important meeting last week in Vienna of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is crucial that we follow up these efforts with support at the parliamentary level. The agreements of the presidents to finalize an OSCE investigative mechanism and to expand the OSCE presence in the conflict zone are important steps that can help reduce the risk of violence,” said the Special Representative.

“Work at the parliamentary level can help encourage political will from the sides in the region to engage in serious efforts to negotiate a comprehensive settlement within the framework of the Minsk Group,” said Vigenin, who expressed his support for the work of the Minsk Group and its Co-Chairs to facilitate a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“On the basis of my talks both here and later this week in Baku, I will propose some concrete ideas for further dialogue and engagement at the parliamentary level, and look forward to discussing these during the OSCE PA Annual Session in Tbilisi in early July,” he said.

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.