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OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict presented a plan to put into action the joint statement on speeding a settlement of the long-standing dispute made by the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia at their talks brokered by the Russian leader on January 23 in Sochi, says a statement issued on Tuesday after the mediators’ visit to the region.

Building on the two presidents' joint commitment to accelerate reaching agreement on the Basic Principles, an outline proposed by the mediating OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, the mediators proposed steps to assist the sides in furthering work on the framework for a comprehensive peace settlement.

The co-chairs - Robert Bradtke of the United States, Igor Popov of Russia, and Jacques Faure of France - and OSCE chairman’s Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk traveled March 2-6 to Yerevan, the Armenia-occupied Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, and Baku. The co-chairs met with Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, and with the leadership of the self-proclaimed regime in Nagorno Karabakh.

The mediators also discussed with the sides how to implement commitments in the Sochi statement to continue work on a mechanism to investigate skirmishes along the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops.

The co-chairs reported that they have requested, through the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, that the OSCE High-Level Planning Group "further develop the mechanism as an important measure to enhance stability and improve trust". In addition, the co-chairs discussed humanitarian and people-to-people contacts, which should be used to promote mutual understanding among peoples of the region, and not be politicized or manipulated to the detriment of the peace process.

The US, Russian and French diplomats plan to travel to Vienna on March 22 to brief the OSCE Permanent Council on the latest steps being taken toward reaching a peaceful settlement to the Karabakh problem.

The Minsk Group has been mediating peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia since a brutal war between the two South Caucasus republics in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since a precarious ceasefire was signed in 1994.

Ethnic Armenians are running a self-proclaimed republic in Nagorno Karabakh. Its so-called independence, declared at the time of the Soviet collapse in 1991, has not been recognized by the world community.

The Basic Principles, which are the basis for the ongoing peace talks, 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.

Russian co-chair Popov told reporters in Baku that he disagrees with the statements suggesting that the Minsk Group has failed to achieve progress in Karabakh settlement.

"I think this view is wrong," he said. "As I said in my other interviews, we have done a lot to have a peace accord signed…Another key point is that over 20 years we have prevented this conflict from reaching a boiling phase."

US mediator Bradtke told the press that there is vast potential to develop humanitarian relations between the conflict parties.

"The Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents have talked about this too," he noted. "They hope that humanitarian ties will develop more. We are beginning to establish these ties just now. At the moment cooperation gives us a lot of hope."

According to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, the Minsk Group co-chairs will pay another visit to the region in a month.

This story is published by AzerNEWS Weekly under a project funded by the Foundation for State Assistance to the Development of the Media under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.