BERNARD FASSIER: "TECHNICAL DOCUMENT ON RESOLUTION WAS PRESENTED TO THE PARTIES TO THE KARABAKH CONFLICT IN HELSINKI"

Today.Az
politics/49473.html
Dec 10 2008
Azerbaijan

The parties of the Karabakh conflict were presented a "technical"
document, which may promote the resolution of the Karabakh issue and
acceleration the coordination of basic principles on the conflict
resolution, said French co-chair of the OSCE MG Bernard Fassier,
reports the Azerbaijani service of the Liberty radio station.

He also said that this document was prepared by the Foreign Ministers
of Russia, France and the United States. According to the co-chairman,
initially the document must be developed and studied and then either
be approved or rejected by the conflict parties.

The French co-chair noted that the Foreign Ministers of Russia and
France, as well as the deputy US Secretary of State at the meeting with
the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan presented a schedule
to the parties to allow finishing the coordination of basic principles
on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict within the next year.

Fassier, called the recent Helsinki meeting of the Foreign Ministers of
the OSCE member-states to be very useful and important in the sense of
the resolution of the Karabakh conflict. "First of all, the Foreign
Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia have discussed the resolution
of the Karabakh issue for more than 5 years. The discussions also
involved co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Moreover, the Foreign
Ministers of Russia, France and deputy US secretary of state called
on the sides to make a step forward on the way to strengthening the
atmosphere of trust and withdrawing snipers from the first conflict
line", announced the French diplomat.

It should be noted that the MG mediators appealed to the sides two
weeks ago. Bernard Fassier noted that "this step will show adherence
to the Moscow declaration, under which the parties are bound to
take steps for strengthening mutual trust and will be a sign of good
will and a New Year present to young soldiers and ordinary citizens,
residing in this territory".