Azernews.Az

Friday March 29 2024

Baku calls for serious talks over conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh

17 February 2015 15:13 (UTC+04:00)
Baku calls for serious talks over conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Azerbaijan is ready to start serious negotiations to prepare a draft peace agreement on the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, said a top Azerbaijani official.

Elmar Mammadyarov, Foreign Minister, exchanged views with Co-Chairman of the Minsk Group of Organization for Security and Cooperation Igor Popov (Russia), Pierre Andrieu (France), and James Warlick (US), and Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman Andrzej Kasprzyk during talks on the negotiation process to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, in Baku on February 16 .

Focusing on the ceasefire violation, Mammadyarov called on the mediators to urge Armenia to liberate the occupied territories of Azerbaijan based on international law and four UN Security Council resolutions as the first step of the settlement process.

"The withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories will be an important step to resolve the conflict and to build trust between the sides," he said.

Mammadyarov underlined an urgent need to start serious negotiations on the draft peace agreement.

"Azerbaijan is ready for these negotiations," he said.

The sides also discussed the schedule of actions to start working on a peace agreement.

Meanwhile, Pierre Andrieu, French Co-Chairman, said the Minsk Group mediators will do everything to reduce tension in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"We hope that the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will keep on meeting in the future. We would like the presidents to meet during the upcoming summit of the UN General Assembly in September. The final decisions are usually made by the presidents. We are trying to play a mediation role. It is not easy, but we are moving in this direction," he noted.

Andrieu added that the Minsk Group co-chairmen will soon visit member-states of the Minsk Group, including Belarus, Serbia and Italy.

He also talked about the recent negotiations in Helsinki through the invitation of the Finnish foreign minister. Andrieu said the middlemen informed the Finnish side about the current situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

Andriue revealed the plan of the co-chairmen to meet with representatives of the Red Cross in Baku and Yerevan as part of the current visit to the region.

"We would like the Red Cross to start working over the hostages issue as soon as possible, because thousands of families want to know about their relatives. It is a sensitive topic, being a part of the measures for rapprochement and understanding,” he said.

Touching upon the conflict in Ukraine, Andrieu noted that it does not affect the coordination of the OSCE Minsk Group and the co-chairmen are working as they did before.

As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

- - -

Follow Mushvig Mehdiyev on Twitter: @Mushviggo

Follow us on Twitter: @AzerNews

Loading...
Latest See more