"The last meeting between the Presidents of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan in Sochi, has given new breath to the Karabakh conflict negotiations," Kanat Saudabayev OSCE Chairman, Secretary of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan said.

"As a regional country we have more opportunities to get closer to the final stage of the Karabakh process. We expect that the conflict solution will be found before we pass the OSCE chairmanship next country," Saudabayev said. Last year, the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia met six times - in Munich, Chisinau, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague and Zurich. Meetings in Moscow and St. Petersburg were also in the trilateral format.

"We will do our utmost to resolve the Karabakh conflict. OSCE Minsk Group has now reached the big breakthrough," Kanat Saudabayev said, Trend News reported.

The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out in 1988 as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched in the final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from 1991 to 1994. Since the ceasefire in 1994, sealed by Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the control of NKR defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group up till now.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections. Most of its 3,500-plus staff are engaged in field operations, with only around 10% in its headquarters.

The OSCE is an ad hoc organization under the United Nations Charter (Chap. VIII), and is concerned with early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation. Its 56 participating states are in Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and North America and cover most of the northern hemisphere. It was created during the Cold War era as an East-West forum.