Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 20 2005

OSCE mission to travel to occupied territories through Armenia

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (Russia, USA and France), due to
arrive in Baku on January 28 as part of the OSCE fact-finding
mission, will head for Azerbaijan’s Khankandi region under Armenian
occupation passing through Armenia, Russian co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov
said.
The mission representatives will gather in Yerevan, and then leave
for Khankandi, along with the OSCE chairman’s special envoy Anjei
Kaspshik, Merzlyakov said. The mission’s credentials include looking
into the illegal settlement of Armenians in the occupied Azerbaijani
lands, but not giving any political assessments.
Deputy Foreign Minister, President’s special envoy on Upper Garabagh
Araz Azimov regarded the fact the mission will enter occupied Azeri
territories from Armenia as `a technical and temporary step’, as
there is no other alternative.
Azimov added that the mission must guarantee that relocation of
Armenians to the occupied Azerbaijani land will stop.
The mission is expected to will visit five Azerbaijani regions –
Kalbajar, Lachin, Jabrayil, Gubadly and Zangilan – where Armenians
were purposefully settled.*