Azernews.Az

BAKU – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said certain progress has been achieved in settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno (Upper) Karabakh.

Nazarbayev told Euronews, the European Union’s news network, that extensive efforts were made to resolve the Dnestr and South Caucasus conflicts during Kazakhstan’s chairmanship in the OSCE.

He noted that international experts visited Nagorno Karabakh under the OSCE’s auspices this October for the first time in the past five years to study the situation on the ground.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement to the Karabakh conflict visited the Armenia-occupied territories surrounding Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh region October 7-13. Three technical experts, including two from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), assisted them in their tasks. The mission provided an important opportunity for the co-chairs to meet with numerous people and familiarize themselves with the current situation in the territories, in all aspects, including humanitarian needs.

Nazarbayev also welcomed the agreement to swap prisoners of war and the bodies of soldiers signed by the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia after talks in Astrakhan held with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s mediation on October 27.

The Kazakh leader added that these efforts facilitate confidence-building between the parties and bringing their positions closer.

Armenia and Azerbaijan waged a war in the early 1990s that claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis. Armenia still occupies part of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory. Peace talks have been largely fruitless so far and sporadic clashes on the frontline continue.