BAN KI-MOON: UN NOT DIRECTLY ENGAGED IN KARABAKH PROCESS
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.02.2010 13:14 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The United Nations do not have any direct engagement
on the issue of Nagorno Karabakh peace process, where the OSCE is in
the forefront, UN Secretary-General said.
Questions regarding this conflict should be asked to the OSCE,
Mr. Ban Ki-Moon told Trend News.
The UN General Assembly has passed four non-biding resolutions on
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, all before 1994.
The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out in
1988 as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched in the
final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from
1991 to 1994. Since the ceasefire in 1994, sealed by Armenia, NKR and
Azerbaijan, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan
around it (the security zone) remain under the control of NKR defense
army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the
OSCE Minsk Group up till now.
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 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 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.