US envoy welcomes easing bellicose rhetoric over Karabakh
US Ambassador in Baku Matthew Bryza has said there is no military solution to the long-standing Nagorno Karabakh conflict, welcoming the easing belligerent rhetoric from Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"Bellicose statements are not as frequent as before, and this is good," Bryza told reporters on Wednesday. He added that Baku was committed to a peaceful settlement, without the use of force.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994.
The ambassador said the process of agreeing the Basic Principles of Karabakh settlement, a peace outline proposed by the OSCE mediators, should be completed.
"This is not impossible. The issues that the sides have differences upon can find their solution," said Bryza, a former US co-chair of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group, which also includes Russia and France.
The Basic Principles include the return of the territories surrounding the Nagorno Karabakh region 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 to return home.
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