OSCE MG postpones meetings on Karabakh conflict in Turkey

The meetings on the NagornoKarabakh conflict settlement to be held in Turkey with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen have been postponed, said James Warlick, American co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.

"At present, we are considering the date of the next meeting," Warlick told RIA Novosti.

Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a pressconference in Baku that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen will visit Ankara on July 18, where they will inform the Turkish side of the negotiation process on the NagornoKarabakh conflict settlement.

Armenia's territorial claims in the late 1980s accompanied with bitter military aggression resulted in the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh, and seven surrounding regions. More than a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs in the aftermath of the war between the two South Caucasus republics.

In 1994, the OSCE Budapest Summit established the so-called Minsk Group to mediate between the two countries. However, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries for over 20 years.

The co-chairs of the Minsk Group are Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation; Pierre Andrieu of France; and James Warlick of the United States of America. The Group’s permanent members are Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, and Turkey, as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group cochairs, dubbed the Madrid Principles.