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Agreement of presidents to meet important step: OSCE Secretary General

8 November 2013 12:59 (UTC+04:00)
Agreement of presidents to meet important step: OSCE Secretary General

By Sara Rajabova

Positive changes are taking place in the process of the settlement of frozen conflicts in the area of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Lamberto Zannier, OSCE Secretary General has said.

In an interview to ITAR-TASS news agency, Zannier said that the agreement of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents to meet was an important step.

"We are in talks with both sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Currently, we are working hard to ensure the meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders. Hopefully, it will be held before the end of the year," Zannier said.

He added that the task of the OSCE is to support the intention of the parties to move towards a political solution and not to consider other alternatives.

In late September, Zannier discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov within the 68th session of the UN General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York.

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's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.

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