Nagorno Garabagh

Home page

Nagorno Garabagh

OSCE MG to try to hold Azerbaijani, Armenian presidentsâ€™ meeting as soon as possible, says Warlick

15 July 2016 16:04 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Turbat Baghirova – APA. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs will try to organize the next meeting of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan as soon as possible, US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick told RIA Novosti on Friday.

"Although the date of the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents has not been fixed, the US, Russia and France, as co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, will try to organize the presidents’ next meeting as soon as possible,” said Warlick.

The latest meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents took place in St. Petersburg June 20.

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.