OSCE CHAIRMAN-IN-OFFICE TO DISCUSS PROCESS OF PEACEFUL REGULATION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT IN SOUTH CAUCASUS

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
June 1 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend A.Gasimova / The OSCE
Chairman-in-Office, Miguel Angel Moratinos, intends to discuss the
process of peaceful regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the
region of the South Caucasus. The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Spanish
Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, will visit Azerbaijan and
Yerevan on 4-5 June, Spanish Foreign Ministry’s representative for
Caucasus, Gudman Palassio, informed on 1 June.

In 2007 Spain chairs the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe. According to Palassio, as Moratinos is OSCE Chairman-in-Office,
he decided to visit Azerbaijan and Armenia and therefore, 90% of the
negotiations will take place within OSCE and 10% within bilateral
relations between Azerbaijan and Spain.

Moratinos will arrive in Baku in the evening of 4 June and held talks
with Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister, Elmar
Mammadyarov. In the morning of 5 June, Moratinos will meet with the
Head of the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh, Nazim Bahmanov
and representatives of the political parties of Azerbaijan. After
the meetings, Moratinos will leave for Yerevan to hold meetings with
Armenia’s President, Robert Kocharyan, Prime Minister, Serj Sarksyan,
Foreign Minister, Vardan Oskanyan, as well as with the "President"
of the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Arkady Kukasyan and
other representatives of Armenian political parties.

Moratinos will return to Madrid in the evening of 5 June.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus appeared
in 1988 due to the territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan.

Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani lands including the
Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven districts of the country surrounding
it. From 1992 to the present time, these territories have been under
the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia
signed a cease-fire agreement at which time the active hostilities
ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA)
are holding peaceful negotiations.