Russian OSCE co-chair tells Azeri TV about visit to Armenia controlled area
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
20 Dec 04
[Presenter] Baku’s initiative to look into the situation in the
occupied territories is becoming a reality. A special OSCE mission
made up of [the Minsk Group] co-chairs and representatives of several
neutral countries will inspect the territories under the Armenian
control in a month and half. Before the mission starts it work,
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are expected to visit Azerbaijan and
Armenia. The Russian co-chair, Yuriy Merzlyakov, has spoken to ATV
about all this.
[Correspondent over archive footage] The composition and date of the
visit by the OSCE mission to Azerbaijan’s occupied territories have
been determined. Yuriy Merzlyakov has told ATV that the mission
will pay its first visit to the region at the end of January next
year. As to the composition of the group of experts, Merzlyakov said
that representatives of the co-chair countries and four OSCE member
states will join the mission. And the names of those countries are
already known.
[Merzlyakov, over the phone, in Russian with Azeri voice-over] We, the
co-chairs, will not represent the co-chairing countries. Azerbaijan
and Armenia had to choose them from among other countries. The sides
have agreed that German, Italian, Swedish and Finnish representatives
will join the mission.
[Correspondent] As to the fact that Turkey, which is a Minsk Group
member, was not included in the mission, the Russian co-chair said that
Turkey was not included under an agreement reached by the two sides.
[Merzlyakov] The situation with Turkey is like this: There had
been a proposal that the four countries should be chosen from among
those countries whom Armenia and Azerbaijan do not oppose. And the
conflicting sides accepted this proposal. So, Turkey was not included
in the group because of the known reasons.
[Correspondent] Merzlyakov said that the Azerbaijani and Armenian
foreign ministers will meet in the middle of January. He also revealed
the date for the co-chairs’ next visit to the region.
[Merzlyakov] Most probably, we will visit Baku and Yerevan in early
January 2005. But this will only depend on the mission that we will
send to the occupied territories. I mean, we will clarify the details
of the mission’s visit to the occupied territories.