Azernews.Az

BAKU – OSCE mediators have urged Azerbaijan and Armenia to capitalize on "the positive momentum" created at the Russian-brokered meeting of the two countries’ leaders held in Sochi March 5 and "to focus on the priority issues" to make progress in agreeing the basic principles for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs said in a statement issued on Thursday that during their talks in Baku and Yerevan this week, they also discussed with the parties measures to implement the commitment in the joint statement agreed at the Sochi summit, hosted by President Dmitry Medvedev, regarding the investigation of violations of the 1994 ceasefire.

The co-chairs - Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States, and Igor Popov of Russia - stressed that recent events along the line of contact of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, before and after the Sochi summit, had demonstrated the urgent need for such a mechanism and called upon all the parties to respect the ceasefire. They referred to their longstanding proposal for the withdrawal of snipers, regretted that it has not been implemented, and again urged its adoption, which could save innocent lives.

The co-chairs traveled to Baku, Yerevan, and Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh region on March 15-17 where they met with the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents and foreign ministers. In Nagorno Karabakh, they held discussions with the leaders of the self-proclaimed republic.

While in Yerevan, there was also a meeting with OSCE Chairman-in-Office Audronius Azubalis.

The co-chairs presented to the two presidents their Field Assessment Report, reflecting upon their last year’s mission that assessed the situation in the Armenia-occupied Azerbaijani territories. They noted that they would be briefing the Minsk Group in Vienna on the report on March 23 and "would have no public comment on it until then".

The fact-finding mission of the Minsk Group co-chairs visited the occupied territories surrounding Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh region October 7-13, 2010 on Baku’s initiative.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a brutal war that ended with the signing of a fragile cease-fire in 1994. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since then. Peace talks have largely accomplished no result so far. Sporadic clashes on the frontline continue. Frontline skirmishes killed more than 20 soldiers in 2010.

The status of the Nagorno Karabakh region has been a stumbling block in peace talks. Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and Azerbaijani refugees returned home, and only after that could the status of Nagorno Karabakh be determined within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, while Armenia insists that self-determination is the core principle for a settlement of the dispute. The mediators are seeking a solution based simultaneously on both principles.