OSCE Minsk Group showing more interest in Karabakh conflict than in previous years

Settlement of the NagornoKarabakh conflict remains the most topical issue of Azerbaijan’s policy, therefore any meetings initiated by the OSCE Minsk Group with the participation of Azerbaijani and Armenian officials are one more step towards solving the long-standing problem.

Azerbaijani MP Rovshan Rzayev made the remarks in his interview with Day.Az while commenting on the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in Vienna.

The meeting of the Azerbaijani FM Elmar Mammadyarov with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and the Armenian FM is scheduled for December 6. Recently, Mammadyarov noted that this meeting can be as productive as the one in Moscow, the results of which pleased Azerbaijan.

Rzayev said that recently there has been some revitalization in the negotiation process by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, which is a positive indicator of the fact that the member states are currently showing a much greater interest in the problem than in previous years.

“The Armenian leadership should understand that delaying the resolution of the problem and imitating the negotiation process are pointless. The issue must be solved in accordance with the norms of international law,” noted Rzayev.

To this end, leading states, cochairing countries of the Minsk Group must compel Armenia to implement UN Security Council resolutions calling for the unconditional withdrawal from the occupied territories, added the MP.

Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh 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 hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of the UN Security Council resolutions.

At the last meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Geneva on October 16, which was organized by the Minsk Group cochairs, the heads of state agreed to take measures to intensify the negotiation process on the settlement of the conflict and to take additional steps to reduce tensions along the frontline.

The co-chairs, in turn, expressed satisfaction with these negotiations after a long break, noting that they remain ready to work with the parties to resolve the NagornoKarabakh conflict peacefully and through negotiations.