OSCE to send monitoring mission to Upper Garabagh

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Dec 16 2004

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will send a
monitoring mission to Upper Garabagh to check reports from Baku about
Armenia’s establishing settlements in the area, Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists in London.

“The main thing is to define the format of this mission and the
date of arrival. We would like it to begin as soon as possible,”
Mammadyarov said.

An agreement to organize a monitoring mission was reached with Armenia
during talks between the Armenian and Azeri foreign ministers in
Sofia and Brussels earlier this month, he said.

The co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group directly engaged in settling the
Upper Garabagh problem should join the monitoring mission, he said.
Mammadyarov urged Armenia to assume a constructive position in the
talks. “On the one hand, we are in talks, but on the other Armenia
is building illegal settlements in the occupied territories. If this
continues, serious negotiations are out of the question,” he said.
Mammadyarov welcomed the agreement with Armenia to continue the
negotiating process.