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FM: Armenia to resume Karabakh peace process in near future

23 May 2018 16:32 (UTC +04:00)

Armenian Foreign Ministry is expecting to participate in talks on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said on Wednesday, APA reported citing news.am.

When asked whether Yerevan’s position on Karabakh conflict has changed, Mnatsakanyan said it is very important to preserve the dynamics of the peace process as the basis for this are the instructions to continue the process of peaceful settlement exclusively through negotiations and within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

“We agreed that in the near future we will have an opportunity to meet and restore the entire process,” the FM said.

At the same time, he noted that they already had the opportunity to discuss the issue with the co-chairs on the phone.

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 December 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.