Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union have reiterated support for a peaceful solution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which has lasted for over two decades.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, whose country holds the EU Presidency, co-chaired an OSCE Troika-EU ministerial meeting on October 21, the OSCE said.

The objective of the meeting was to maintain high-level political dialogue on regional security issues between the EU and the OSCE. The ministers focused on security developments in the OSCE region, in particular, with regard to conflicts.

The meeting participants expressed their support for the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to find a peaceful political solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and to promote dialogue between Azerbaijan and Armenia on its settlement.

Kozhara said earlier that protracted conflicts in the OSCE region remain one of the main sources of tension and a threat to security and stability in the OSCE area.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenian territorial claims.

A precarious cease-fire was reached after a lengthy war that displaced over a million Azerbaijanis and has been in place between the two South Caucasus countries since 1994. Since the hostilities, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.