Kazakhstan attaches major importance to conflict settlement

PanARMENIAN.Net - During their visit to Astana, the Co-Chairs of OSCE Minsk Group met with Secretary of State - Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, OSCE Chairman-in-Office Kanat Saudabaev.



"Within the framework of preparation for the OSCE Chairmanship in 2010, delegation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan participated in the meeting of heads of OSCE field missions in South Caucasus on September 24-25, 2009. The focus of the forum was on political, economic and humanitarian issues of the region, as well as its main issue - Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," says the release posted on Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry website.



Kazakhstan's chairmanship in OSCE attaches major importance to settlement of unresolved conflicts on OSCE area and focuses special importance on ensuring security and stability in the South Caucasus, Kazakh Foreign Minister said during the meeting.



"We are hopeful that during Mr. Saudabaev's upcoming tour we'll be able to approximate the positions of the mediators and the Chairman," said OSCE MG Russian Co-Chair Yuri Merzlyakov.



The Artsakh ( Nagorno Karabakh) Republic (NKR) is a de facto independent republic located in the South Caucasus, bordering by Azerbaijan to the north and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west.



After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923 it formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that was fought from 1991 to 1994.



Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the control of Nagorno Karabakh defense army.



Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.



The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, now Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)) to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.



The Minsk Group is headed by a Co-Chairmanship consisting of France, Russia and the United States. Furthermore, the Minsk Group also includes the following participating States: Belarus, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Turkey as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan. Current Co-chairmen of the Minsk Group are: Ambassador Bernard Fassier of France, Ambassador Yuri Merzlyakov of the Russian Federation and Ambassador Robert Bradtke of the United States.



The main objectives of the Minsk Process are as follows: Providing an appropriate framework for conflict resolution in the way of assuring the negotiation process supported by the Minsk Group; Obtaining conclusion by the Parties of an agreement on the cessation of the armed conflict in order to permit the convening of the Minsk Conference; Promoting the peace process by deploying OSCE multinational peacekeeping forces.



The Minsk Process can be considered to be successfully concluded if the objectives referred to above are fully met.