Azernews.Az

BAKU – OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict said Tuesday that the "remaining differences" should not prevent Azerbaijan and Armenia from accepting a roadmap for resolving the long-standing dispute and moving on to "the treaty-drafting phase" of the peace process.

"As Presidents Medvedev, Sarkozy, and Obama remarked in their May 26 joint statement at Deauville, further delay only calls into question the commitment of the sides to reach an agreement," the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs said in a statement, referring to the earlier call by the three co-chairing countries’ leaders to finalize the basic principles of a peace agreement.

The co-chairs - Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States and Igor Popov of Russia – said that although the sides did not reach final agreement on the Basic Principles at the presidents’ meeting in Kazan brokered by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on June 24, progress was made.

"The outcome of Kazan, including confirmation by the sides that they will continue to seek a negotiated settlement, provides momentum that the parties should use to reach agreement on the Principles as soon as possible," the statement said.

The parties did not achieve a breakthrough during the talks in Kazan, and even traded accusations after the meeting, though both the mediating countries and the conflict parties earlier made statements urging to sign an agreement on a roadmap for Karabakh settlement.

The co-chairs as well as Andrzej Kasprzyk, personal representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office, met separately on Monday with Secretary General Lamberto Zannier and with the Minsk Group to discuss the ongoing peace process. The co-chairs briefed on the outcome of the Kazan meeting, and they discussed the next steps required to finalize the Basic Principles as the framework for a comprehensive peace settlement.

The mediators plan to hold consultations in Moscow and to visit the region in the near future.

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs dubbed the Basic Principles. The principles include the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their homes.