Russian FM, OSCE MG co-chairs discuss Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's settlement
By Rashid Shirinov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to discuss current issues of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement with them.
The co-chairs from Russia, France and the U.S. – Igor Popov, Pierre Andrieu and John Warlick – and the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office’s Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk discussed the ways of solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Russian Minister. The discussions also referred to implementation of agreements reached at the summits on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement in Vienna on May 16 and in Saint Petersburg on June 20. The parties mulled the current situation on the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.
After the meeting in St. Petersburg, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan confirmed the agreements reached at the Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Vienna, which are aimed at stabilizing the situation in the conflict zone and creating an atmosphere conducive to advancing peace process.
To this end, the presidents in particular agreed to increase the number of international observers in the conflict zone.
Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. 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.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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