Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The recent meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents held in Bern with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ mediation for exploring the ways to reach peace in long-standing Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict hasn’t yielded the desirable results.

No new proposals or points were raised during the meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia on December 19.

Although several political experts assessed the meeting as a meeting held for the sake of a meeting, the co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group believe this meeting will be a positive step in conflict resolution.

Alexander Lukashevich, Russia's permanent representative to the OSCE voiced his country’s hope that Azerbaijan and Armenia could start a substantive dialogue on the principles of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

He noted that the recent meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan is a "significant progress" to resolve the conflict, RIA Novosti reported.

The peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group on the basis of the Madrid Principles have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries over 20 years.

The sides to the conflict currently hold talks based on the renewed Madrid principles, which envisage return of occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, ensure the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence, future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh and etc.

The United States, in turn, announced that it "strongly focused" on the peaceful resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

State Department spokesman John Kirby said at the briefing on December 21 that "the summit offered the presidents an important opportunity to meet face to face for the first time in over a year and to clarify their positions".

Noting that the presidents expressed concern about civilian casualties caused by the use of heavy weapons, Kirby said at their request, the Minsk Group co-chairs will continue to work on proposals to reduce the risk of violence.

The presidential meeting took place on the background of the aggravation of situation on the contact line of the Armenian-Azerbaijani troops.

The Armenian armed forces have increased ceasefire violations resorting to provocations on the contact line. They continued shelling Azerbaijani positions right after the presidential meeting.

The frequent ceasefire breaches by the Armenian military often result with the loss of life from both sides.

Kirby said Washington supports "measures to reduce the number of victims among the civilian population". He also added that the U.S. delegation "with Russian and French counterparts continues discussion of these measures in the OSCE Minsk Group"

The U.S. officials also informed that the co-chairs are also prepared to support a meeting of the presidents next year to continue their discussions on the settlement.

“We want to see proposals put forward that all sides can implement to foster peace and better security,” Kirby said.

As a co-chair country, the United States remains firmly committed to mediating a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, according to the U.S. official.

--

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

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz