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Kurz says Russia can play key role in resolving crises in OSCE area

18 January 2017 09:56 (UTC +04:00)

Russia can play a key role in resolving the current crises in the OSCE area, Austria’s Foreign Minister, OSCE Chairman-in-Office Sebastian Kurz told Sputnik agency, APA’s Moscow correspondent reported.

"Russia can play a decisive role in fostering constructive dialogue to peacefully resolve the current crises,” Kurz said.

The OSCE chairperson is due to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Jan. 18. The sides will discuss the Syrian and Ukrainian crises, as well as the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria conflicts.

One of the conflicts in the OSCE area is the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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 CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) 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, the 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.