By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

The participants of the First General Assembly of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Civil Peace Platform, which was held in Tbilisi on October 30, have appealed to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs with the initiative to establish a review board of representatives of the Armenian and Azerbaijani civil societies which would have an advisory mandate under the Minsk Group.

The appeal noted that the OSCE Minsk Group has made serious efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, stop military operations on the frontline and continue the negotiation process between the parties, and the organization continues to work in this direction.

The OSCE Minsk Group, established in 1992 to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, is the only international organization carrying out its mediation mission in the issue. However, despite the measures taken and negotiations held over the past 25 years, the peace has not yet been established between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“There are many reasons for this situation, and one of them is that the civil societies and NGOs of Armenia and Azerbaijan are not able to cooperate either with each other or with state structures,” the Civil Peace Platform stated.

The appeal also noted the deep concern about the systematic violations of the ceasefire on the frontline, which led to numerous casualties, and about the possibility that these violations will develop into large-scale military operations.

“We as the Armenia-Azerbaijan Civil Peace Platform feel responsibility and the need to establish cooperation with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs that can contribute to the settlement of the conflict and also help you in this complex peace building process,” the appeal reads.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

The decisive process of bringing together the people of Azerbaijan and Armenia on boosting the settlement of the conflict started in December 2016, when the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform was founded in Baku by a group of Azerbaijani and Armenian public figures and peacekeepers. It was created to bring together representatives of civil society of the two countries for creating dialogue between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the sides to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.