OSCE: Full use of existing negotiation format needed to solve Karabakh conflict
By Laman Ismayilova
OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier has voiced a need to make full use of the existing negotiation format to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Zannier, addressing the Annual Security Review Conference in Vienna on June 28, further noted the necessity of recommitting to peaceful settlement and stepping up forward in the process of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Zannier also reminded that the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, the serious updating of violence around the line of contact is of great concern.
“Stronger OSCE presence on the ground could play a stabilizing role,” believes the OSCE secretary general.
For over the past 20 years the OSCE-led Minsk Group is dealing with the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which emerged in 1988 as a result of Armenia's illegal territorial claims on Azerbaijan.
Russia’s Permanent Representative at the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich earlier told TASS that A separate session of the three-day Security Conference will be dedicated to conflict situations in the OSCE area and their impact on security in the region.
“The OSCE sees a positive trend emerging after the recent consultations of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Vienna and St. Petersburg,” he said on June 28.
The high tension on the contact line of the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops has decreased amid the resumption of the peace talks to resolve the conflict.
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev has met his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan twice in the past month and half first in Vienna in May, and the second time in St. Petersburg in June along with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Officials and observers have positively assessed the intensification of talks, along with the signs of more constructive spirit of the talks.
The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in their joint statement of June 24 urged the sides to honour the agreements which were reflected in the Joint Statements of the 16 May summit in Vienna and the 20 June summit in St. Petersburg.
“We also urge progress in substantive talks and on a proposal to establish an OSCE investigative mechanism. We will continue our engagement with the sides to advance all of these outcomes from the last two meetings between the Presidents,” the statement read.
Armenia keeps under occupation 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory and ignores the UN Security Council's four resolution on immediate withdrawal from the occupied lands. Consequently, over 1 million of Azerbaijanis are obliged to live a refugee life in their native lands.
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