Azernews.Az

OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh issued a statement on Wednesday on the outcomes of their visit to the region.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs - Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States and Igor Popov of Russia – said they and OSCE chairperson’s personal envoy Andrzej Kasprzyk traveled November 28-30 to Yerevan and Baku. The co-chairs were accompanied by Jacques Faure, who will succeed Fassier as the French co-chair of the Minsk Group from 2012.

The mediators held meetings in both countries with their presidents, and ministers of foreign affairs and defense. In all these meetings, they reaffirmed the strong commitment of their countries to assisting the sides in achieving a lasting and peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Noting recent reports of incidents along the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the co-chairs stressed again to the presidents the importance of respecting the 1994 ceasefire agreement. They reiterated that "such incidents demonstrate the need to implement the proposed mechanism to investigate incidents along the front-lines, on which the presidents have agreed in principle".

"The co-chairs also discussed additional measures for enhancing confidence through people-to-people exchanges and efforts to preserve places of worship, cultural sites, and cemeteries," the co-chairs’ statement says.

On November 29, the co-chairs crossed the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan by foot, and met on each side with local officials to discuss the situation in the borderline regions. On November 30, they met with representatives of Nagorno Karabakh Azerbaijanis, and underscored that a peaceful settlement must include the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence.

The statement said further that, "Looking ahead to the December OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Vilnius, the co-chairs urged the sides to use this opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to seeking a peaceful settlement and moving beyond the unacceptable status quo."

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war in the early 1990s that displaced up to a million Azerbaijanis. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since the 1994 ceasefire. Peace talks are underway on the basis of the Basic Principles, a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs. The principles include the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons to return home.