Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Dec 4 2008

OSCE FMs to Adopt Special Declaration on Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict:
OSCE Special Representative

04.12.08 15:07

Finland, Helsinki, 4 Dec /Trend News corr. I.Gusatinskaya/ OSCE
Foreign Ministers will adopt a special declaration on Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, OSCE Special Representative for the South Caucasus Heikki
Talvitie said to Trend News in Helsinki on 4 Dec.

On 4 Dec, Helsinki is hosting a meeting of the OSCE Foreign
Ministers. Conflict settlement is one of the topics under discussion.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in
1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan
lost the Nagorno-Karabakh, except of Shusha and Khojali, in December
1991. In 1992-93, Armenian Armed Forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and
Nagorno-Karabakh’s seven surrounding regions. In 1994, Azerbaijan and
Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active
hostilities ended. The countries keep on peace negotiating. OSCE Minsk
Group co-chaired by USA, Russia, and France is engaged in peace
settling of the conflict.

Next year Greece will assume the duties of OSCE Chairman-in-Office and
many issues will depend on how Greece will join settling of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Talvitie said.

Recent progress in settling of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict provides
a good basis to find a solution. Constructive character of recent
meetings between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in
St. Petersburg in June and in Moscow in November is an important step
to settle the conflict.

The latest meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers
took place in early November during the trilateral Moscow meeting
among Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Russia’s Dmitriy Medvedev
and Armenia’s Serzh Sargsyan. As a result Presidents signed the Moscow
Declaration.