Azernews.Az

BAKU – OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh arrived in Baku on Thursday as part of their visit to the region.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Igor Popov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France and Robert Bradtke of the United States – as well as the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk of Poland are due to hold meetings on Friday with President Ilham Aliyev, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Defense Minister Safar Abiyev, the French mediator told reporters.

Fassier said the co-chairs had met with the Armenian president, ministers of foreign affairs and defense in Yerevan on Wednesday, but he declined to give details on the grounds that the mediators’ visit has not yet been completed.

"The OSCE Minsk Group’s mission is to advance the ongoing efforts to try to achieve approval of the basic principles for a peaceful settlement of the conflict," Fassier added.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994. Armenian armed forces have since occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno Karabakh.

Peace talks between Baku and Yerevan are underway on the basis of the Madrid principles, a peace outline proposed by international mediators. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs initially proposed the document in the Spanish capital in November 2007. In Athens in November 2009, the updated version of the Madrid Document was submitted to the sides. Baku has accepted the renewed Madrid Document with some exceptions, while Yerevan has yet to state a clear-cut stance on the peace outline.