Azernews.Az

The risk of armed clashes continues in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) president`s special rapporteur on the conflict has said.
Goran Lennmarker, who arrived in Baku on Monday as part of a visit to the South Caucasus region, expressed his hope that both sides in this ongoing conflict would seek a common ground, saying it was pivotal to compromise in exchange for a settlement to the long-standing dispute.
"If a compromise solution is found, many refugees will be able to return home. I believe this is important for both countries," he said.
Upper Garabagh is an Azerbaijani region that has been occupied by Armenian forces since a 1994 ceasefire ended separatist fighting that killed an estimated 30,000 people and forced as many as one million people from their homes.
The OSCE`s team of diplomats, referred to as the Minsk Group, has been brokering the peace process.
In reference to the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, Lennmarker said the OSCE unequivocally supported Georgia`s territorial integrity. He said his visit to the region would allow him to closely follow ongoing developments in the South Caucasus republic, where a brief war with Russia took place in August.
"Abkhazia is Georgian territory and residents of the region have been living side by side for years," Lennmarker said.
He added that Azerbaijan is one of the three South Caucasus states, and how relations develop among these regional states following the Georgian-Russian conflict will be carefully watched.
On August 16, Lennmarker was appointed the OSCE PA special envoy for Georgia and the situation in its breakaway republic of South Ossetia. After completing the visit to Azerbaijan, he is scheduled to meet with officials in Armenia and Georgia. He will, further, submit a report on the current situation in Georgia when the PA meets in Toronto, Canada from September 18-21.