Azernews.Az

BAKU - OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh have called for a negotiated settlement of the long-standing dispute based on non-use of force, territorial integrity, and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples. The statement came Monday following talks held in the two countries by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Igor Popov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France, and Robert Bradtke of the United States.
In their meetings in both Yerevan and Baku, the co-chairs noted the progress that has been made and the recognition by both sides that the elements articulated by their three presidents in L'Aquila and repeated in their June 26 statement must be the basis of a peaceful settlement. They urged the parties, "in a spirit of constructive compromise", to take the next step and move towards completing work on the basic principles to enable the drafting of a peace agreement to begin. They called upon the sides to strictly observe the 1994 ceasefire and exercise restraint along the line of contact.
The statement, issued by Presidents Dmitry Medvedev, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy during a G8 summit in Canada, called on the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to finalize the main principles of Garabagh settlement in order to begin drafting a peace accord. The statement referred to several key principles of the peace process, including the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Garabagh to Azerbaijani control, an interim status for Nagorno Garabagh providing guarantees of security and self-government, the determination of the future legal status of the Azerbaijani region through a legally binding expression of will and the right of refugees and IDPs to return home, as well as international guarantees of security, including peacekeeping operations.
During their visit, the co-chairs also presented to the parties their plan to undertake a mission to the occupied territories this fall, which was accepted in principle, the statement said.
The co-chairs expect that a meeting will take place between the heads of their delegations and the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the margins of the OSCE informal ministerial in Almaty July 16-17.
The three co-chairs visited Yerevan and Baku July 3-5. Bradtke and Popov also visited the self-proclaimed Upper Garabagh republic July 2.
In Nagorno Garabagh, the US and Russian mediators briefed the self-proclaimed republic’s leaders on the latest developments in the peace process, including the June 26 statement of the mediating countries’ presidents. They also discussed the June 18-19 incident on the contact line of the two countries’ troops. They deplored this incident as an unacceptable violation of the ceasefire, and reiterated "their regret over the senseless loss of life and their strong condemnation of the use of force".
In Baku and Yerevan, the three co-chairs met with the presidents, foreign ministers and ministers of defense. In Baku, they also held a meeting with representatives of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons from the Nagorno Garabagh region.
Bayram Safarov, the leader of the region’s Azerbaijani community, told a news conference following the meeting with the mediators that Azerbaijanis were "binding great hopes" with the presidents’ latest statement. Speaking about the meeting, which lasted an hour and a half, Safarov said the community members had said they hoped to witness a positive outcome of the statement.
"We told them we want to return to our lands. We stated that the enforcement of the presidents’ statement and Hillary Clinton’s visit [to Baku] inspire great hopes in us," he said.
According to Safarov, discussions covered the status of Upper Garabagh. "We stated that until the Azerbaijani population returns to their homes, [determining] any status is out of the question."
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a cease-fire in 1994, but Armenia continues to occupy Upper Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law. Despite numerous rounds of OSCE-brokered negotiations, peace talks have been largely fruitless so far and refugees remain stranded. Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and Azerbaijani refugees displaced during the armed conflict in the early 1990s returned home, and only after that could the status of Nagorno Garabagh be determined within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
MP Elman Mammadov, a member of Nagorno Garabagh’s community, said the Azerbaijani representatives had called upon the Minsk Group co-chairs to put pressure on Armenia. The community members also said they do not consider the conflict "frozen". It was also noted that so long as occupation persists, Azerbaijan might launch military action to liberate its territories.
According to Mammadov, in their reply, the co-chairs cited Georgia’s experience.
"When we said this, the co-chairs reminded of Georgia and other issues. The community members, for their part, explained to them indirectly that Azerbaijan has no intention to wage a war with Armenia. Azerbaijan will carry out military operations to free its land from terrorists, the same way Russia is conducting anti-terror operations in the northern Caucasus."
The co-chairs did not brief journalists following the discussions, though this was previously planned, and confined to issuing a written statement.