Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan’s permanent mission to the OSCE has voiced importance of every effort to advance the talks on long-lasting Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The mission said there is a positive note in a report by the OSCE Minsk Group announcing that Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents confirmed their commitment to meet by the end of the year.

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, Ambassadors Igor Popov of Russia, James Warlick of the U.S., and Pierre Andrieu of France issued report on October 29, following their visit to the region on October 26-28.

“It is important if they manage to meet and to discuss the key elements of the settlement process and other issues,” the mission said, local media reported.

The mission underlined as another important element the attempt of the co-chairmen to reestablish the dialogue at the level of the communities, who are primarily affected by the conflict.

In the report, the co-chairs said they encourage dialogue among all those affected by the conflict as an essential part of the peace process, and support programs that bring Armenians and Azerbaijanis together.

There is also reference to the co-chairmen’s meeting with the ICRC representatives in Yerevan.

“We do not know in general the results of that meeting, but at least the co-chairs discussed the implementation of the agreement, which was achieved at the level of the presidents of France, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the exchange of the data on the missing two persons. If we also manage to move forward on this issue it would contribute to both the process and the peace efforts,” the mission said.

The Azerbaijani mission also called for elimination of the military factor.

“What we need to do is to eliminate the military factor. We have to channel our efforts to move beyond this status quo. That is what has been repeatedly called by the presidents of the Minsk Group co-chairing countries, the OSCE and international community. The way to shake this status quo is to eliminate the military factor,” the mission said reminding that the only military factor remaining in the territory is the presence of the Armenian troops.

The mission concluded the report urging the Armenian government to withdraw the occupant troops so that people could at least feel safer in those territories.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in the exhausting conflict. Since a war in the early 1990s, the Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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