OSCE chairman appreciates co-chairs mediation efforts
By Sara Rajabova
The OSCE Chairman, Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter discussed the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.
Burkhalter received Minsk Group co-chairs - Igor Popov (Russia), Jacques Faure (France) and James Warlick (U.S.), and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, in Bern on January 14, OSCE said.
Burkhalter discussed the co-operation between the Swiss Chairperson-in-Office and the Minsk Group co-chairs and expressed his appreciation for their mediation efforts.
The co-chairs and Kasprzyk also met with Yves Rossier, the State Secretary of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
Prior to his appointment as OSCE Chairman, Burkhalter voiced readiness to promote the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
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, dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.