OSCE TALKS SOLIDARITY, NAGORNO-KARABAKH

United Press International UPI
Dec 3 2009

ATHENS, Greece, Dec. 3 (UPI) — The 56 members of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed concern in Athens
that force is still seen as an option to end conflicts.

The foreign ministers from the OSCE adopted a measure on European
security dubbed the Corfu Process during a ministerial council meeting
in Athens.

The ministers in their declaration expressed concern "that the use
of force has not ceased to be considered as an option in settling
disputes; that the danger of conflicts between states has not been
eliminated, and armed conflicts have occurred even in the last
decades."

The Minsk group of the OSCE, led by France, Russia and the United
States, is leading peace negotiations aimed at settling the conflict
of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the early
1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ankara and Yerevan,
however, signed protocols aimed at repairing diplomatic relations at
an October summit in Zurich, Switzerland.

The OSCE in its security statement said it was optimistic that those
developments would lead to peace.

"We are convinced there is today a real opportunity to build a
future of peace, stability and prosperity for the entire region,"
the statement said.