ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Jan 14 2008

Kazimirov: frequent rotation of OSCE Minsk group co-chairs doesn’t
hobble Karabakh conflict settlement

YEREVAN, January 14. /ARKA/. Frequent rotation of OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs doesn’t hobble Karabakh conflict settlement, Vladimir
Kazimirov, former co-chair of the Minsk Group, said on Monday as met
journalists in Yerevan.

`Rotation of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs is very natural process.
Co-chairs can’t carry out their duty lifelong. Any diplomat’s career
is in periodically changing portfolio’, he said.

Kazimirov said that new co-chairs still need time for getting
familiar with the matter.

`However this can’t hamper the conflict settlement – the thing is in
conflicting sides, not mediators. Mediators can only promote the
conflict solution, and the sides have to find a solution’, he said.

The Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Nagorno Karabakh, mainly
populated by Armenians, declared its secession from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority
of the population (99.89%) voted for independence from Azerbaijan.

Afterwards, large-scale military operations began, as a result of
which Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven
regions adjacent to it.

On May 12, 1994 after the signing of the Bishkek cease-fire
agreement, the military operations were stopped.
The war took lives of 25000 to 30000 and 1 million people fled their
homes.

Since 1992, negotiations over the peaceful settlement of the conflict
have been carried out within the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the
USA, Russia and France. M.V.-0—