Azerbaijani, Armenian FMs meet in Milan
AThe meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan Elmar Mamedyarov and Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on Nagorno-Karabakh was held on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council on December 5.
The meeting, with the participation of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov - Russia, Stefan Visconti - France and Andrew Schaefer - U.S.) was also attended by a personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office Andrzej Kasprzyk.
Mammadyarov expressed confidence that the negotiations were important, as there was a useful exchange of views.
"I believe that the negotiations that took three hours were important and useful from the point of view of an even better understanding of the positions of the parties. It was agreed to continue negotiations in this format in the near future, most likely next month," he said.
Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Elmar Mammadyarov agreed to continue such meetings, keeping the established dynamics.
Meanwhile, the OSCE PA supported the proposal of Azerbaijan to exchange hostages on the principle of "all for all".
A meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Bureau (OSCE PA) was held in Milan, where vicepresident of the organization, Azerbaijani MP Azay Guliyev made an appeal on December 6.
Guliyev brought to the attention of the Bureau members the initiative put forward by the Azerbaijani side for the exchange on the “all for all” principle of the persons taken prisoner and hostage, and registered both from the Armenian and from the Azerbaijani side by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“This initiative of Azerbaijan is a very humane approach, and there are enough grounds for it to get support from the OSCE PA,” he said. “The implementation of this initiative can play a positive role in creating a certain environment of trust between the parties and achieving progress in the peace talks. I believe that the new leadership of Armenia should correctly assess the good intentions of Azerbaijan, and not to miss this unique chance, which can create good conditions for negotiations. Therefore, I urge President of the OSCE PA George Tsereteli and the Bureau members to support this initiative and to leave the matter in the main political agenda of the Assembly.”
Guliyev reminded that he had sent an official letter to Margareta Kiener Nellen, chairperson of the OSCE PA Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, to assist in the release of Azerbaijanis Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev who had been held for four years in Armenian captivity, and give their assessment in terms of gross violation of human rights.
Tsereteli said that he welcomes the initiative of Azerbaijan, and steps will be taken in this direction.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries 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 districts.
As a result of Armenia's armed invasion into Azerbaijan's legal territory, the two neighboring countries have remained locked in a bitter territorial dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Armenia-backed separatists seized from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the early 1990s.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Despite Baku's best efforts, peace in the occupied lands remains a mirage in the distance as Armenia refuses to comply with international law.