Armenpress News Agency, Armenia
 Monday


OSCE MG co-chairs visit Nagorno-Karabakh



The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have paid a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh,
APA reported citing news.am.

The co-chairs have met with Bako Sahakyan, the so-called president of
the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh regime.

Also attended by the Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairperson-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, the meeting focused on the
discussion of theNagorno-Karabakh conflict and the situation along the
contact line of troops.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the
Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in
1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the
Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war,
Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani
territory which includesNagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts
(Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam,Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and
over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced
people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and
Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the
OSCEMinsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE
after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) Ministerial Council in
Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group's members include Azerbaijan,
Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey,
Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution,
comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began
operating in 1994.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which
were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted
by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations
require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from
Nagorno-Karabakh.