OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS TO ARRIVE IN YEREVAN JAN. 20
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.01.2010 17:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Co-Chairs of OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassadors Bernard
Fassier (France), Robert Bradtke (US) and Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia)
are planning a visit to Yerevan on January 20, Armenia’s Foreign
Ministry’s Spokesman Tigran Balayan told PanARMENIAN.Net.
During their visit, the mediators dealing with the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict will meet with RA President Serzh Sargsyan and Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian.
The Nagorno Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 as result of the
ethnic cleansing Azerbaijan launched in the final years of the Soviet
Union. The Karabakh War 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.