AZERBAIJAN WANTS TO STUDY THE PROCEDURE OF CHANGING THE COUNTRIES AND PERSONS OF MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS

Today
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March 26 2008
Azerbaijan

"Azerbaijan has sent a letter to OSCE Secretariat to study the
procedure of changing the countries and persons of Minsk Group
Co-Chairs", Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov made
such a statement.

APA reports quoting "ATV".

According to A.Azimov, the MG Co-Chairs were appointed in Budapest
Summit in 1994 and their functions are clear: "Changing of mediators
as a person is realized by the will of one side. For instance, The
United States replaced his representative Steven Mann with Matthew
Bryza. Official Baku is concerned about the issue that if Matthew
Bryza takes any step dissatisfying Azerbaijan, what and how will
Azerbaijan act in this case?"

According to A.Azimov, Azerbaijan is not in favor of changing the
format of the Minsk Group. "On the other hand, the co-chairs have
not represented the Minsk Group as a whole. They have represented
themselves in the discussions conducted with Azerbaijan and Armenia",
said A.Azimov.

He stated that Azerbaijan continued the cooperation with the co-chair
countries, but at the same time Azerbaijan had sent a letter to OSCE
Secretariat to study the procedure of changing the countries and
persons of Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

"We simply want to know how to do this in case of necessity, because
Azerbaijan is also a member of the Minsk Group like the US, Russia
and France", he said.