Conflict settlement up to Azeri leader: OSCE PA chief
Settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh depends on the Azerbaijani side and President Ilham
Aliyev, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) President Joao
Soares said during a visit to Baku on Monday.
"I hope that both sides’ leaders will display political courage to make this decision this year. Very resolute steps have to be taken. I hope that President Ilham Aliyev will take this crucial step and thus go down in the history of not only Azerbaijan but also the region and the whole world as a personality who enabled a settlement of the Upper Garabagh problem."
Prospects for Garabagh settlement were in spotlight during talks held by Soares’ delegation with President Aliyev and other officials in Baku.
Prior to arriving in Azerbaijan, the OSCE PA president visited Georgia and Armenia as part of his tour of the South Caucasus region, which ends Tuesday.
This is Soares’ first visit to Azerbaijan in the capacity of the OSCE PA head. Soares previously visited the country as an election observer.
The Garabagh conflict emerged during the last few years of the Soviet Union. 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including Upper Garabagh and seven adjacent districts, has been under Armenian occupation since the two South Caucasus republics signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following a lengthy war. The OSCE has been brokering peace talks for nearly two decades through a team of mediators representing the United States, Russia and France. However, negotiations have brought few tangible results so far.*
"I hope that both sides’ leaders will display political courage to make this decision this year. Very resolute steps have to be taken. I hope that President Ilham Aliyev will take this crucial step and thus go down in the history of not only Azerbaijan but also the region and the whole world as a personality who enabled a settlement of the Upper Garabagh problem."
Prospects for Garabagh settlement were in spotlight during talks held by Soares’ delegation with President Aliyev and other officials in Baku.
Prior to arriving in Azerbaijan, the OSCE PA president visited Georgia and Armenia as part of his tour of the South Caucasus region, which ends Tuesday.
This is Soares’ first visit to Azerbaijan in the capacity of the OSCE PA head. Soares previously visited the country as an election observer.
The Garabagh conflict emerged during the last few years of the Soviet Union. 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including Upper Garabagh and seven adjacent districts, has been under Armenian occupation since the two South Caucasus republics signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following a lengthy war. The OSCE has been brokering peace talks for nearly two decades through a team of mediators representing the United States, Russia and France. However, negotiations have brought few tangible results so far.*
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