Azernews.Az

YEREVAN – Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian has claimed that the latest statement issued by the OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh conflict contained an erroneous term "occupied territories".

The Minsk Group co-chairs - Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States and Igor Popov of Russia – have visited the Armenia-occupied territories surrounding Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh region as part of their Field Assessment Mission. The mediators issued a joint statement in conclusion which referred to occupied territories and cited Khankandi, the center of the self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh republic, which Armenians call "Stepanakert".

Nalbandian maintained the term "occupied territories" is used rarely nowadays.

"I believe that it was just a mistake…I disapprove of the reference to ‘Khankandi’ in the statement. This is not the right term, and it should be ‘Stepanakert’ instead, because it is wrong to use a title that was changed after the war broke out."

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a cease-fire in 1994. Armenian armed forces occupy 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory. Efforts by the OSCE mediators have been largely fruitless so far. The separatist regime in Nagorno Karabakh proclaimed so-called independence in 1991, which has not been recognized by any country to date.

Nalbandian told journalists that in order to continue fulfilling their mediating mission, the co-chairs should retain a balanced and neutral stance while aiding the parties’ endeavors to settle the Karabakh conflict.