Azernews.Az

Representatives of the Azerbaijani community of the Armenia-occupied Nagorno Karabakh region will hold talks in the countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, which is brokering peace talks between the two South Caucasus countries on their long-standing conflict, a member of the community was quoted as saying Thursday.

"The community members will pay a visit to France, Russia and the U.S. in the coming months," Farhad Badalbayli told Azerbaijan’s Trend news agency. "These countries are the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, therefore, it is important to inform the public about the position of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno Karabakh."

Badalbayli added that there are those in the US Congress and in the parliaments of the other co-chairing countries who support the interests of the Armenian community of the region.

"Armenians marked the 20th independence anniversary of Artsakh [the word used by Armenians for Karabakh] in the US Congress," he said. "Unfortunately, we were unable to stop it. We must intensify visits to the above-mentioned countries."

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

Badalbayli stressed that members of the Azerbaijani community will also travel to Germany later this month where they will try to meet with the Armenian community of Nagorno Karabakh.

"We constantly propose these meetings, put forward the initiatives, but the Armenian side avoids them," he added.

Nagorno Karabakh has been occupied by Armenian armed 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 OSCE-brokered peace talks have brought few tangible results.

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. Mediators are seeking a solution based on both principles.