Azernews.Az

The OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict agreed to continue peace talks in accord with existing framework during the meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President-elect Serzh Sarkisian in Bucharest, Romania last week.
"The two leaders and the co-chairs agreed to continue the negotiations on the existing basis, further clarify the current proposal on the table, and pursue additional steps to advance the peace process. For that purpose, the mediators underscored the utility of meetings at the highest level between the sides as soon as possible," says a statement released by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen on Thursday.
"The two leaders and the co-chairs exchanged views on ways to reduce differences between the sides and forge consensus on the basic principles for the peaceful settlement of the Upper Garabagh conflict."
The intermediaries submitted a set of basic principles on the conflict resolution in writing to Baku and Yerevan in Madrid, Spain on November 28, 2007. But after the UN General Assembly passed a resolution in mid-March demanding unconditional pullout of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories, Azerbaijan put forth the initiative to continue peace talks based on that document. The mediating states voted against the resolution, drawing fire from Baku. The Azerbaijani government further sent an inquiry to the OSCE to get informed about the replacement of the co-chairing countries or the Minsk Group co-chairs.
The co-chairs reiterated their support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and reaffirmed their longstanding view that a peaceful resolution of the conflict will require "a negotiated political compromise on the final status of Upper Garabagh, pending the future approval of its population".
The co-chairs Yuri Merzlyakov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France and Matthew Bryza of the United States, and the representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office Andrzej Kasprzyk had separate meetings with the two countries' leaders on the sidelines of a NATO summit April 2-4. Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and Vardan Oskanian attended the talks as well.
Head of the Azerbaijani President's Office international relations department, Novruz Mammadov, said that President Ilham Aliyev demanded during the tense hour-and-half meeting that the co-chairmen provide explanations on their countries’ votes against the UN resolution.
Elaborating on the reasons for the move, the mediators claimed that the resolution meets the interests of only one side and fails to take into account the co-chairs' proposal "on balanced territorial integrity".
"The co-chairs came out against the draft resolution as they consider it inappropriate and discriminatory," the diplomats said.
Armenian President-elect Sarkisian said his country backed a negotiated resolution of the long-lasting dispute within the Minsk Group and based on the proposed document. He also expressed concern over the latest skirmishes on the contact line of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops.
Sarkisian told a news conference after meeting the mediators that he would be able to elaborate on his conclusions about talks only after a meeting with the other party to the negotiations. "But in any case, the co-chairs are optimistic, and evidently there are grounds for this."
Armenia and Azerbaijan waged a war over the mountainous region in the early 1990s, which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis. Armenia has been occupying over 20% of Azerbaijan's internationally-recognized territory since then. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but the OSCE-brokered peace talks have been fruitless so far.