Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are preparing a meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in New York, Russia’s permanent representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich said on July 19.

“The co-chairs will continue to intensify their efforts, and they are preparing for a meeting with the foreign ministers of the two countries in New York,” he said during a Moscow-Vienna video conference call. “In order to arrange a new meeting at the highest level, measures will be taken to increase the level of work with the parties.”

Last week, the OSCE Minsk Group, which deals with finding a fair solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, organized a meeting with Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers Mammadyarov and Nalbandian in Brussels to discuss modalities of further work on the settlement of the conflict. At the meeting, the co-chairs proposed a meeting at the level of presidents later this year.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Izvestia newspaper, citing a senior source in the country’s Foreign Ministry, reported that Russia will be the main organizer of a meeting between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan till the end of the year.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict 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 regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan has long ago stated it is ready to settle the conflict through direct negotiations with Armenia with mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. However, the Armenian side is constantly trying to make up reasons to avoid a constructive dialogue and preserve the unacceptable status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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