Azernews.Az

BAKU – The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh are due to arrive in Baku on October 4.

Igor Popov, the Russian co-chair, told the press that talks will be held with Azerbaijani leaders October 4-5 about the upcoming visit by an international fact-finding mission to the Armenia-occupied territories around Nagorno Karabakh.

The personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, will take part in the talks, along with the Russian co-chair and his counterparts, Bernard Fassier of France and Robert Bradtke of the United States.

The OSCE fact-finding mission, which will include the Minsk Group co-chairs, will scrutinize the illegal settlements in Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent regions upon Azerbaijan’s request October 4-14. A statement issued by the mediators says that as agreed during talks with United Nations officials in Geneva and New York, experts of the UN Development Program and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have been invited to take part in the mission.

The Karabakh conflict flared up in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces occupy 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but efforts by the mediators have been largely fruitless so far. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions demanding its unconditional pullout from the occupied territories.