Azernews.Az

Hearings on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh were held at the fall session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly last Saturday.

The meeting, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, was addressed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs brokering Karabakh settlement.

Robert Bradtke of the United States said the mediators see a solution of the long-standing dispute on the basis of three principles – non-use of force, territorial integrity of states and self-determination of nations.

The co-chairs said they are working to reach a solution in accord with six elements. These include a pullout of Armenian armed forces from the Azerbaijani regions around Nagorno Karabakh -- which have been occupied since a 1994 cease-fire ended a brutal war; granting an interim status to Nagorno Karabakh; and a direct link between the region and Armenia. The principles also include a future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno Karabakh; a return of internally displaced persons to their homes; and international security and peacekeeping operations in the conflict zone.

Bradtke pointed out that the conflict parties’ rejecting some of the principles hampers reaching a final agreement.

The principles, known as Basic Principles or the Madrid Document, lie at the core of the ongoing peace talks between Baku and Yerevan. The peace outline was initially proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs in 2007 and further updated in 2009.

OSCE chairperson’s personal representative Andrzej Kasprzyk, in his remarks at the assembly session, expressed concern over the clashes on the Azerbaijani-Armenian frontline in which three soldiers have been killed in past days. He said that the OSCE therefore offers to hold a monitoring on the contact line of the two countries’ troops in the coming days.