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Germany supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs

23 June 2016 19:11 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Turbat Baghirova-APA. The Co-Chairs informed the OSCE Chairperson-in Office and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter SteinmeierÂ on the meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia in St. Petersburg, as well as on progress in the course of the meeting an agreement in connection extension in-Office Personal Representative of the OSCE in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, says the statement on the outcome of the meeting of the co-chairs with the OSCE Chairman in Berlin, APA reports.

The report notes that the agreement is intended to stabilize the situation in the conflict zone and create a favorable atmosphere to strengthen the peace process.

Steinmeier welcomed the recent improvements in the upholding of the ceasefire. There was agreement among the participants of the Berlin meeting that a sustainable ceasefire and a return to political negotiations remain indispensable.

â€œIn the framework of the German OSCE Chairmanship Germany is supporting the negotiation efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group and its Co-Chairs and will continue to work actively towards a settlement of the conflictâ€, 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 Groupâ€™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.Â

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.