Azernews.Az

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is looking into the possibility of holding a meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region occupied by the neighboring country’s armed forces since a 1990s war.

Parliament Vice-Speaker Bahar Muradova, head of the Azerbaijani delegation at the OSCE PA, told a news conference in parliament Friday that she had offered to hold such a meeting during recent hearings on the Karabakh conflict in the assembly.

"I said in my address that OSCE PA should not confine to holding the hearings and achieve conduct of a meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian communities. Such a meeting would be a major step in the conflict settlement and in building confidence," Muradova said, adding that her proposal was supported by OSCE PA members.

According to the vice-speaker, OSCE special representative for the South Caucasus Joao Soares is due to visit the region in November or January, and discussions will be held during the visit on arranging a meeting of the two communities of Nagorno Karabakh.

Muradova said the meeting must take place in the Azerbaijani capital, as representatives of both sides are citizens of Azerbaijan.

"If no agreement is reached to hold the meeting in Baku, it could take place in a neutral venue – Vienna. Discussions may cover issues regarding mutual confidence, co-existence [of the two communities] and security."

Hearings on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict were held at the fall session of the OSCE PA on October 8. The meeting, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, was addressed by the mediating OSCE Minsk Group’s co-chairs, who represent the United States, Russia and France.

Bayram Safarov, the leader of Nagorno Karabakh’s Azerbaijani community, has said its representatives were ready to hold talks with members of the Armenian community. He said such meetings should be held regularly and could facilitate a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

David Babayan, the spokesman for the leader of the self-proclaimed republic run by ethnic Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh, has said Baku’s proposal was unacceptable.

"There are no such concepts as the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno Karabakh," he claimed. "The Nagorno Karabakh Republic is in place, and if Azerbaijan wants to resolve its conflict with Karabakh, it should make a proposal to Stepanakert [Khankandi, the rebel region’s center] on holding bilateral meetings. A first meeting may take place in Baku, while another one in Stepanakert or in other places. But such meetings are to be held between representatives of Artsakh [the word used by Armenians for Karabakh] and Azerbaijan -- two official parties [to the conflict]."

Nagorno Karabakh has been occupied by Armenian forces, along with seven surrounding Azerbaijani regions, since a 1994 cease-fire ended a brutal war that killed an estimated 30,000 people and ousted up to one million Azerbaijanis from their homes. Years of the OSCE-brokered peace talks have brought few tangible results.

The separatist regime held an illegal referendum in 1991 with the participation of only Armenian residents of Nagorno Karabakh. The voters allegedly supported so-called independence of the region.

The status of Nagorno Karabakh has been a stumbling block in peace talks. Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and Azerbaijani refugees returned home, and only after that could the region’s status be determined within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, while Armenia insists that self-determination is the core principle for a settlement of the dispute. The mediators are seeking a solution based on both principles.