Armenia agrees to international monitoring in occupied lands – Azeri minister
Bilik Dunyasi news agency
16 Dec 04
Baku, 16 December: Armenia has given a green light to international
OSCE monitoring in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan to find out
whether Yerevan is illegally settling those lands. The Armenian side
announced its agreement during the meeting of the foreign ministers of
the two conflicting countries in Sofia and Brussels in early December,
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has told journalists.
“The main issue now is to define the format of this mission and name
the date for its dispatch. We want it to happen as soon as possible,”
he said.
The minister said that it is reasonable to include the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairmen, who are directly involved in the settlement of
the Karabakh conflict, in the monitoring mission. He also called on
Armenia to take a constructive position in the negotiating process.
“On the one hand, we are negotiating, but on the other, Armenia is
building illegal settlements in the occupied lands [of Azerbaijan]. One
cannot talk about serious negotiations in this case,” he said.
Mammadyarov welcomed the agreement with Armenia to continue the
negotiating process on the basis of the previous meetings in Prague. He
also said that specific directions of the further negotiations to solve
the Nagornyy Karabakh problem could be defined by the end of this year.
The minister called on the Minsk Group co-chairmen to be more active
in bringing the conflicting parties closer together.