OFFICIAL BAKU CALLS ON OSCE MINSK GROUP’S CO-CHAIRS TO INFER FROM AZERBAIJAN’S RECENT MESSAGE
Trend News Agency
April 1 2008
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan, Baku, 1 April /TrendNews corr K. Ramazanova/ The official
Baku calls on the co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group engaged in settling
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to infer from the Azerbaijan’s
recent message.
"The co-chairs monopolize the negotiations and direct them into that
course which is good for them," the Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister
Araz Azimov said to the journalists on 1 April.
The official Baku sent an inquiry to the OSCE to get informed about
the replacement of the co-chairing countries or the co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group. The official Baku has taken such rough measures
because on 14 March the Minsk Group’s co-chairing countries did not
support the Resolution on the Situation in the Occupied Territory of
Azerbaijan at the UN General Assembly’s meeting.
Azimov said that Azerbaijan did not state its intention to replace
the co-chairs. "The letter which Azerbaijan sent to the Minsk Group
was a tactical step. The strategic step is that Azerbaijan observes
not full use of the Minsk Group’s potential," Azimov said.
Azimov said that Azerbaijan is ready to continue the negotiations
to remove the gap in the main principles of settling the conflict,
which were presented by the Minsk Group to Azerbaijan and Armenia in
autumn 2007. "The territorial integrity is non-alternative issue for
negotiations and Azerbaijan is ready to continue the negotiations
only if the issue is provided," he said.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in
1988 due to the Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, the Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven neighboring
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.