Azernews.Az

OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict are creating conditions "by artificial ways" for prolonging the long-standing dispute, an Azerbaijani official said Tuesday.

"The Minsk Group has had great responsibility for 20 years, but they [its co-chairs representing the United States, Russia and France] have not felt this responsibility so far," Foreign Ministry representative Elchin Huseynli told a conference of GUAM’s parliamentary assembly and the Baltic Assembly in Baku.

Huseynli said that at the latest meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, Yerevan backed down from the agreements reached during peace talks in past years. "And the co-chairing countries had to turn a blind eye to the subjects of international law."

According to Huseynli, the co-chairs are failing to fulfill their mission and contribute to a settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

"This is unacceptable. Such inactiveness of the Minsk Group could deal a serious blow upon the organization’s influence in the Caucasus region," he added.

The Minsk Group has brokered peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia since the two neighboring countries signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following a lengthy war. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been under Armenian occupation since then. Numerous rounds of Minsk Group-brokered talks have been largely fruitless so far.