OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS HELD DISCUSSION ON UPCOMING HIGH-LEVEL MEETING

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.01.2010 16:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyana has received
Co-Chairs of OSCE Minsk Group, diplomats Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia) and
Robert Bradtke (U.S.). Present At the meeting was also representative
of OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Anjey Kasprzyk and RA Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandyan.

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.

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.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization, formed under the framework
of the Commonwealth of Independent States, serves as a mutual defense
alliance among Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and
Tajikistan. The Collective Security Treaty (CST) was signed on May
15, 1992 for five-year term, with the possibility of prolongation. On
December 2, 2004 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted
the Resolution to grant the observer status to the Collective Security
Treaty Organization in the General Assembly of the United Nations. The
goal of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is to strengthen
peace and international and regional security and stability and to
ensure collective protection of independence, territorial integrity
and sovereignty of Member States, in the attainment of which Member
States shall give priority to political methods. On February 4, 2009,
the CSTO leaders approved formation of Collective Rapid Reaction Force
(RRF).

The Karabakh-Azerbaijani conflict broke out in 1988 as result of the
ethnic cleansing launched by Azerbaijan 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.