Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Jan 3 2008
OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs Should Cease Nagorno-Karabakh Talks: Head
Azerbaijani Community
03.01.08 14:19
Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend E.Huseynli / Nizami Bahmanov, the head
of the Azerbaijani community of Nagono-Karabakh, considers that the
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs should cease the peace talks. `If the
co-chairs cannot achieve any result in the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it is necessary to cease talks and declare
for the OSCE chairman that the Armenian side is unwilling to change
its non-constructive position,’ Nizami Bahmanov, the head of the
Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh said.
To resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict the Minsk Group was
established in 1992 with the participation of 10 countries. Since
1997 three countries – the United States, Russia and France have been
co-chairing at the OSCE Minsk Group. In this period the co-chairs
have repeatedly came out with different proposals, whilst every time
Armenia demonstrated non-constructive position.
Bahmanov said that as soon as the OSCE Minsk Group cease talks, the
Nagorno-Karabakh talks should be resolved on the level of UN. It is
so naive to expect results from the next visit of the Minsk Group
co-chairs to the region scheduled for mid-January. `Still the
co-chairs are unable to distinguish the occupant country from the
country exposed to occupation and carry out imbalanced policy in the
resolution of the problem. So, it is impossible to speak about any
results,’ Bahmanov said.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in
1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful
negotiations.