Azernews.Az

The next visit by OSCE mediators brokering settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to the region aims to reach compromise between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said Monday.

Mammadyarov told reporters that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ visit will take place by the end of October.

The minister noted that Baku and Yerevan have already reached agreement on certain issues, but "some provisions" remain that are impeding progress in the ongoing peace talks.

"It is necessary to find a formula for reaching compromise, and the mediators’ forthcoming visit will aim to find it," Mammadyarov said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a brutal war that ended with the signing of a fragile cease-fire in 1994. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since then. Peace talks, brokered by the United States, Russia and France through the Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of the Madrid principles, a peace outline proposed by the mediators. The Madrid Document covers a return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, a future determination of the region’s legal status and the right of IDPs and refugees to return home.

Mammadyarov stressed that the key issue in the negotiating process is not determination of Nagorno Karabakh’s status, but resolving the problems concerning the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories and Azerbaijanis displaced during the 1990s war.

"First, it is about returning the occupied land [to Azerbaijan], while the status issue could be resolved only during the final stage [of the peace process]," Mammadyarov said.