Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict intend to organize the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents this year.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but Armenia has not followed them to this day.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Igor Popov of Russia, Jacques Faure of France and Ian Kelly of the United States - and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk traveled to the region on May 23-24. The co-chairs met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on May 23, and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan on May 24.

The presidents and the co-chairs discussed developments since their last meetings, reiterated their commitment to the peace process, and exchanged views on the need for a summit later this year.

The mediators expressed their readiness to explore ideas for moving the process forward, and reiterated the need to avoid actions or rhetoric that could raise tensions or damage the negotiations. They will meet with the foreign ministers in the coming weeks to explore mutually acceptable approaches to resolving the long-standing conflict.

Before the co-chairs' visit to the region, Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward Nalbandian met in Poland on May 17, where the ministers together with the Minsk Group mediators discussed possible ways to advance the peace process.

The ministers exchanged views on the current situation and reaffirmed their commitment to promoting peace in the region.

Russia, France and the U.S. have long been working to broker a solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through the Minsk Group, but their efforts have been largely fruitless so far.

Peace talks are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles, also known as Basic Principles. The document envisions a 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.