Azernews.Az

YEREVAN - OSCE mediators discussed the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh with the Armenian president and foreign minister in Yerevan on Tuesday.

Igor Popov, the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, said after the meeting with Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian that they had discussed enforcement of the agreements reached at the March 5 meeting between Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan and their Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

"We touched upon the issue of developing a mechanism to investigate incidents on the Line of Contact [of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops], and also talked about the expected meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers," Popov said.

Presidents Aliyev and Sargsyan issued a joint statement after the talks in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi stating their intention to "resolve all controversial issues by peaceful means". They agreed to investigate skirmishes along the contact line of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops that killed more than 20 soldiers last year, under the auspices of the OSCE mediators. The presidents also agreed to swiftly finalize the exchange of prisoners of war.

According to the Armenian foreign ministry, Minister Nalbandian claimed that Baku was using the Minsk Group co-chairs’ report assessing their fact-finding mission in 2010 to the Armenia-occupied territories for its "military rhetoric".

"The Azerbaijani side’s comments regarding the report are absolutely contrary to the co-chairs’ assessment," Nalbandian charged.

The co-chairs - Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States, and Igor Popov of Russia – carried out a Field Assessment Mission (FAM) in the seven occupied Azerbaijani regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh in October 2010 upon Baku’s request. Three technical experts, including two from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), assisted them in their tasks. The OSCE mediators issued a report concerning their mission on March 24. According to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, the mission revealed the continuation of the policy of illegal settlement by the ethnic Armenians in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan as well as infrastructure changes and economic activities defying international law. The FAM also observed that the administrative boundaries of the occupied territories have been extensively redrawn; this redrawing has involved the renaming of some districts. Furthermore, Armenians are renaming the historical names of Azerbaijani sites and settlements.

US mediator Bradtke said the Minsk Group co-chairs would head to the Armenia-occupied Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan later Tuesday and further visit Azerbaijan on Wednesday to meet with President Ilham Aliyev.

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 leaning simultaneously on both principles.