TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER TO DISCUSS REGIONAL ISSUES IN LONDON
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.01.2010 14:33 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On January 11-12, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu will pay an official visit to UK. The agenda includes
Turkey’s EU membership bid, Cyprus problem, as well as a number of
regional and international issues, including the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, Anadolu Agency reported.
The Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) is a de facto independent republic
located in the South Caucasus, bordering by Azerbaijan to the north
and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west.
After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923
it formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the
Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan
launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that
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.