TWO CO-CHAIRMEN OF OSCE MG TO BE REPLACED IN 2009: RUSSIAN CO-CHAIR

Today.Az
cs/54041.html
July 22 2009
Azerbaijan

Russian and U.S Co-Chairmen of OSCE Minsk Group will be replaced in
2009, Russian Co-Chairman Yuri Merzlyakov said.

"U.S Co-Chairman of OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza will pay a last
visit to the region as Co-Chairman of OSCE Minsk Group," Merzlyakov
said over the phone from Moscow.

He said that he will also leave the position of Co-Chairman in 2009.

"I intend and hope that I will be allowed to leave this post on the
seventh year of service as Russian Co-Chairman of OSCE Minsk Group. I
think it will happen in 2009, Merzlyakov said.

U.S Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian
Affairs Bryza was appointed Co-Chairman of OSCE Minsk Group to solve
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from the U.S side in June 2006 and
replaced Steven Mann.

Magazine Foreign Policy reported in early June that U.S Congress had
unofficial consultations on the possible appointment of Matthew Bryza
as Ambassador to Azerbaijan.

"There is no information about my appointment as Ambassador," Bryza
told media in Moscow before Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan’s meeting
in July.

Bryza said that if there was to be such an appointment, he would be
pleased to work in any South Caucasus country.

Merzlyakov became Russian Co-Chairman of OSCE Minsk Group in solving
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in September 2003, replacing Ambassador
Nikolai Gribkov.