Azernews.Az

BAKU – An OSCE fact-finding mission that will scrutinize the situation in the Armenia-occupied territories of Azerbaijan has arrived in Baku. The mission includes experts of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs brokering settlement to the Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh conflict met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on Tuesday. Bayram Safarov, the leader of Nagorno Karabakh’s Azerbaijani community, who took part in the three and a half-hour talks, told the Baku-based ANS TV channel that the community’s expectations regarding the mission had been conveyed, but he did not specify them.

"They informed us that they will visit Nagorno Karabakh and other occupied regions, and we will learn the outcomes upon the mission’s return," Safarov said.

The Minsk Group co-chairs are scheduled to meet with President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday.

On the same day, the mediators are due to leave for Armenia where they will hold talks with President Serzh Sargsyan.

On Thursday, the co-chairs are due to leave for Khankandi, the center of the self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh republic.

The fact-finding mission is expected to end on October 13 or 14 depending on the weather.

French mediator Bernard Fassier has told the press that the fact such a mission was taking place was, in itself, important.

"The previous mission was conducted in the region in February 2005. So, more than five years have passed since then. This suggests that we will compare the situation in the regions with what it was five years ago."

The mission will scrutinize the illegal settlements in Nagorno Karabakh and other Armenia-occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan waged a war in the early 1990s, which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about one million Azerbaijanis. Armenia has been occupying over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory since then. Peace talks have largely accomplished no result so far.