Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 14 2005

OSCE fact-finding mission to visit occupied territories

The OSCE Minsk Group (MG) co-chairs from Russia, United States and
France are due to arrive in Baku on January 28, Deputy Foreign
Minister Araz Azimov told a press conference on Thursday.
The MG co-chairs will visit the country as part of the OSCE
fact-finding mission which will look into the illegal settlement of
Armenians in the occupied
Azerbaijani lands. The mission will also include OSCE MG co-chairs
from
Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Finland.
Azimov said that the mission members will hold a number of meetings
with Azeri officials, after which they will tour the region. He said
that as part of preparations for the visit, the co-chairs will meet
with the other mission members in Vienna on January 21 to discuss
technical issues.
The Deputy Foreign Minister continued that `the mission should not
give any political assessments but prepare a report on the facts it
witnesses and confirms’.
The mission will visit five Azerbaijani regions – Kalbajar, Lachin,
Jabrayil, Gubadly and Zangilan, where Armenians were purposefully
settled, Azimov said.
`With regard to the two other regions, Aghdam and Fuzuli, I am not
aware of such facts’, he added.*