SERZH SARGSYAN TO PAY OFFICIAL VISIT TO MOSCOW ON JANUARY 18

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.01.2010 18:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and First Lady
Rita Sargsyan will visit Moscow at the invitation of Russian President
Vladimir Medvedev.

In Moscow, presidential dialogue will focus on strategic partnership
issues between the states and regional problems, RA President’s
spokesman Samvel Farmanyan stated.

Commenting on the forthcoming meeting between Armenian and Azeri
Presidents, Samvel Farmanyan stated that Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan
trilateral presidential meeting will probably take place during
the visit.

"Russia in its capacity of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair for Karabakh
conflict settlement is taking serious efforts towards resolution of
the issue. Two trilateral meetings have already taken place through
the mediation of Russia," presidential spokesman said.

According to Samvel Farmanyan, both bilateral and trilateral meetings
are possible until final settlement of Karabakh conflict.

Sergey Farmanyn denied reports of revised Madrid principleshaving
been presented to official Yerevan.

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) is a de facto independent republic
located in the South Caucasus, bordering by Azerbaijan to the north
and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west.

After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923
it formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the
Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan
launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that
was fought from 1991 to 1994.

Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several
regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the
control of Nagorno Karabakh defense army.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated
by the OSCE Minsk Group.

The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security
and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, now Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)) to encourage a peaceful, negotiated
resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

The Helsinki Additional Meeting of the CSCE Council on 24 March 1992,
requested the Chairman-in-Office to convene as soon as possible
a conference on Nagorno Karabakh under the auspices of the CSCE
to provide an ongoing forum for negotiations towards a peaceful
settlement of the crisis on the basis of the principles, commitments
and provisions of the CSCE. The Conference is to take place in Minsk.

Although it has not to this date been possible to hold the conference,
the so-called Minsk Group spearheads the OSCE effort to find a
political solution to this conflict.

On 6 December 1994, the Budapest Summit decided to establish a
co-chairmanship for the process.

Implementing the Budapest decision, the Chairman-in-Office issued on
23 March 1995, the mandate for the Co-Chairmen of the Minsk Process.

The main objectives of the Minsk Process are as follows: Providing
an appropriate framework for conflict resolution in the way of
assuring the negotiation process supported by the Minsk Group;
Obtaining conclusion by the Parties of an agreement on the cessation
of the armed conflict in order to permit the convening of the Minsk
Conference; Promoting the peace process by deploying OSCE multinational
peacekeeping forces.

The Minsk Process can be considered to be successfully concluded if
the objectives referred to above are fully met.

The Minsk Group is headed by a Co-Chairmanship consisting of France,
Russia and the United States. Furthermore, the Minsk Group also
includes the following participating States: Belarus, Germany, Italy,
Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Turkey as well as Armenia
and Azerbaijan. Current Co-chairmen of the Minsk Group are: Ambassador
Bernard Fassier of France, Ambassador Yuri Merzlyakov of the Russian
Federation and Ambassador Robert Bradtke of the United States.

Madrid principles were adopted at November 2007’s OSCE summit
in Madrid. The documents contain OSCE MG suggestions for Karabakh
conflict settlement. Details of the documents remain classified.