AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Dec 29 2004

OSCE sets up fact-finding mission to visit occupied Azeri lands

The OSCE has set up a fact-finding mission to monitor the Azerbaijani
lands occupied by Armenia. The mission includes the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs and representatives from Germany, Italy, Finland, Sweden as
well as the OSCE Secretariat, a diplomatic source told AssA-Irada.

The mission is scheduled to arrive in Baku late in January-early in
February 2005 to further visit Upper Garabagh and monitor the
occupied lands. A report will be prepared after the monitoring is
over.
Late this November, the Azerbaijani government proposed to put the
issue on the occupied territories on the agenda of the UN General
Assembly session and establish a fact-finding mission within the
OSCE.
Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov has told
Armenian media that the OSCE mission will conduct monitoring not in
Upper Garabagh itself, but only in the seven regions adjacent to it.

Merzlyakov said Armenia will provide suitable conditions for the work
of the OSCE mission, while Azerbaijan will allegedly withdraw its
proposal to discuss the illegal settlement of Armenians its occupied
territories at the United Nations.
Azerbaijani officials have not expressed their position on the matter
yet.
Commenting on the fact that Azerbaijani and Turkish representatives
have not been included in the mission, chairman of the Center for
Political Innovation and Technology Mubariz Ahmadoghlu said
Azerbaijan has enough evidence to ensure that the mission experts
will conduct an unbiased monitoring in the occupied territories.
“Not only Armenia but also several international organizations,
including the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors
Without Borders, are engaged in purposeful settlement of population
in Upper Garabagh and other occupied lands of Azerbaijan.” The
political analyst said that several families of Armenian descent, who
became victims of an earthquake that hit Armenia in 1988, were
settled in the Lachin region, another Azerbaijani territory under
occupation.
This fact was indirectly confirmed by German, Russian and Armenian
representatives of an international organization on search of
prisoners of war and missing people. They officially stated that all
living conditions were created for mentally retarded Armenians in a
mountainous area in the Lachin region.
“Armenia will not be able to hide their large-scale activities on
settling population in the occupied Azerbaijani lands,” said
Ahmadoghlu.

Baku expects progress in January talks
Baku expects considerable progress at the meeting of Azerbaijani and
Armenian foreign ministers upcoming in January, Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov told local ATV channel.
“If Armenia continues to approach the issue seriously, as it did at
the Sofia and Brussels meetings of foreign ministers, remarkable
changes will be achieved in the Upper Garabagh conflict settlement.”
Asked whether the January meeting can be termed as a start of the
second stage of Prague meetings, Mammadyarov said: “In general, I am
opposed to breaking the talks into stages. The meeting should be
considered continuation of the Prague process.”
The foreign minister added that the parties will set the exact time
of the meeting early next month after a telephone conversation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress