OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS CALL THE PARTIES TO THE KARABAKH CONFLICT TO BRAVE DECISIONS

arminfo
2007-07-16 09:39:00

The OSCE MG co-chairs understand that preserving of status-quo after 13
years old "neither war nor peace" situation in the Karabakh conflict
may seem to the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan less difficult
than mutual compromises which will lead to equitable and long-term
settlement of the conflict, and finally to the new era of peace and
prosperity for their nations, the OSCE MG co-chairs’ statement made
after the regular consultations in Vienna within the frames of the
Karabakh conflict settlement process says.

The co-chairs said in the statement that over the meeting in St
Petersburg Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents Robert Kocharyan
and Ilham Aliyev concentrated their attention at coordination
of disagreements, that hinder reaching an agreement on the main
principles of peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. They
also added that unfortunately the presidents did not manage to reach
agreement on these disagreements. ,- the statement says.

At the same time the co-chairs expressed readiness to support the
parties to prepare the next meeting over the coming months. They
also added that some recent processes do not promote preparing of the
peoples to peace, in particular, "the bellicose statements, threats
to apply force and creation of dangerous illusion that war is one of
the options for the conflict settlement".

The co-chairs think that the forthcoming presidential election
in Nagornyy Karabakh have already caused tension in the conflict
zone. Touching on the statements about the previous elections in
Nagornyy Karabakh the co-chairs reiterated that as all the rest world
community the states which they present don’t recognize Nagornyy
Karabakh as an independent state either, and the elections should
not affect peaceful settlement of the conflict.

They also said that unilateral initiatives of the Karabakh conflict
discussion in other organizations may increase tension and hinder the
negotiating process. For this reason they called up the parties to
concentrate attention on reaching real progress in the talks through
the intermediary of the OSCE MG co-chairs.