Azernews.Az

BAKU – The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs mediating talks on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict are expected to conduct a field assessment mission in the Armenia-occupied Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Savarsh Kocharyan was quoted by local media as saying.

Kocharyan told Armenia’s public television channel that Yerevan had been informed to that end by the Minsk Group co-chairs.

The co-chairs - Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States, and Igor Popov of Russia – carried out a mission in the seven occupied Azerbaijani regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh in October 2010 upon Baku’s request to assess the overall situation there. The OSCE mediators said in a report issued on March 24 that they had revealed illegal settlements by the ethnic Armenians there as well as infrastructure changes and economic activities defying international law.

The Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 due to Armenia’s territorial claims. Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been under the occupation of the Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks have been largely fruitless so far. Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and Azerbaijani refugees returned home, and only after that could the region’s status 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.