OSCE chairman-in-office called Nagorno Karabak as “disputable
territory”

01 April 2005 [16:01] – Today.Az

The OSCE chairman-in-office, the head of Slovenian MFA Dimitrij Rupel
stated in Yerevan, “Nagorno-Karabakh problem is a special case, this
conflict may not be compared with other frozen conflicts”.

D.Rupel stated this, commenting his speech at the UN session of the
Council of Security in New York, 4 March where he called
Nagorno-Karabakh as “disputable territory” (“Mediamax”).

The OSCE chairman-in-office stated, “Information about frequent cases
of violation of ceasefire at front line causes serious concern”. “I
hope, all possible measures are to taken for mitigation of existing
tension”, Dimitrij Rupel said. With that end in view he indicated, the
parties are to abstain from “aggressive rhetoric”. Dimitrij Rupel
stated, he intends discussing situation at the contact line of the
parties during negotiations with Azerbaijan leadership.

“OSCE is unaware of “other methods” for settlement of conflicts,
except peaceful methods”, Dimitrij Rupel said, commenting the
Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev’s recent statement, if peaceful
negotiations on settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict fail,
“Azerbaijan is to undertake other measures”.

He indicated, since this point till the end of summer it will be
possible conducting negotiations between Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia and
Azerbaijan. D.Rupel underlined just as well, he looks forward to
quickest prevention of violation of ceasefire regime and normalization
of situation at the contact line. With this end in the view the head
of OSCE indicated, undoubtedly he would discuss with Azerbaijan party
the issue of moving the Azerbaijani positions towards the contact
line. “We presume the aggressive language between parties is
non-admissible”, underlined D.Rupel.

He said, main players in the process of settlement of Karabakh
conflict are Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, telling this, he may
imagine the situation, when opinions of other interested people may
also be taken into account. D.Rupel added, he meant people of
Nagorno-Karabakh in this instance.