ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
January 28, 2005 Friday

OSCE Minsk Group vows to intensify Karabakh settlement efforts

By Sevindzh Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman

BAKU

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received a special mission of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Baku on
Friday. The mission was formed to investigate settlements on
Azerbaijani occupied lands.

The president hopes that the mission, which will visit the occupied
lands and familiarize with the local situation, will help to put an
end to Armenian illegal activities. He said these activities “are one
of the biggest obstacles on the way of lasting peace in the Karabakh
conflict.”

Materials about settlements on the occupied land, which the mission
has received from Azerbaijan, are very important for the work of OSCE
experts, Russian Cochairman of the OSCE Minsk Group for
Nagorno-Karabakh Yuri Merzlyakov said. He vowed that the Minsk Group
would intensify Karabakh settlement efforts.

The mission will visit Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and another seven
occupied areas of Azerbaijan outside the Karabakh limits. The mission
will make a report to the OSCE Vienna headquarters.