OSCE Chairman-in-Office Meets with Head of Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh

Trend News Agency
Feb 28 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 28 February /corr. Trend News E.Huseynli /
Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh considers that the OSCE Minsk
Group should increase its efforts in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh
problem.

"Extending the conflict brings undesirable results for the region,"
said the Head of the Community, Nizami Bahmanov, on 28 February
in Baku at the meeting with the delegation headed by the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva.

The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988
due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has
occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh
region and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these
territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. 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 USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.

Bahmanov said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be settled
only within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. According to him,
currently the occupied Azerbaijani territories have transformed into
uncontrolled territories where illegal activities are carried out.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office said that the Minsk Group makes all
efforts for the peaceful settlement the conflict and its goal is to
achieve sustainable peace. He added that from this point of view,
great attention is being paid to the position of the Azerbaijani
Community of Nagorno-Karabakh. According to Kanerva, the OSCE fully
supports the negotiations process within the Prague process and highly
assesses the efforts in this regard.