Ankara stands for soonest resolution of Karabakh conflict

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ankara has welcomed a joint statement by the co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is mediating between Baku and Yerevan to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Today's Zaman reported.



The United States, France and Russia called mutually on Friday for the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to settle a long-running dispute over Nagorno Karabakh. In a statement released at the Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Italy, the three countries, which co-chair the OSCE's Minsk Group, said they "affirm our commitment" to efforts by Armenia and Azerbaijan to finalize "the basic principles for settlement" of the conflict.



A statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry over the weekend recalled that the OSCE statement said the countries were instructing their mediators to present to the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan an updated version of a proposed peace outline brought forward in the Madrid Document of November 2007.



"We urge the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the few differences remaining between them and finalize their agreement on these basic principles," the Minsk Group statement said.



"The impression we got up to today is that the principles mentioned constitute a general framework. The presence of some nuances in the approaches of the two sides concerning these basic principles should be considered natural," the ministry said, adding that what matters is the quick completion of negotiations on these basic principles in order to reach a peaceful resolution of the dispute which has continued to be a bleeding wound "for both Azerbaijan and Armenia and for the South Caucasus region for years."