OSCE Minsk group co-chairs to visit Armenia and Karabakh
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs from USA, France and Russia will visit Yerevan and Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the next ten days, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said at a joint news conference with visiting Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Lamberto Zannier.
"We expect the co-chairmen to arrive in ten days. They will visit Armenia and Karabakh, but I do not know whether Azerbaijan is ready to receive them as well,’ Nalbandian said.
In response to question about a possible meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, Nalbandian noted that Armenia has always advocated such initiatives at any level.
"If such a need arises, a meeting of foreign ministers or presidents will be held after appropriate preparatory work," Nalbandian said.
He said also that the visit of the co-chairs to the region will show whether there is such a need. He did not rule out the possibility of preparing a meeting at the level of foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is usually held on the eve of the meetings of the presidents.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan sought to secede from Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by a successful referendum.
On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace agreement has been signed. Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions have been under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh is the longest-running post-Soviet era conflict and has continued to simmer despite the relative peace of the past two decades, with snipers causing tens of deaths a year.
On April 2, 2016, Azerbaijan launched military assaults along the entire perimeter of its contact line with Nagorno-Karabakh. Four days later a cease-fire was reached. ---0---