OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS ISSUE STATEMENT ON OUTCOMES OF THEIR VISIT TO REGION

Baku, March 7 (AzerTAc). OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Yury Merzlyakov (Russia),
Bernard Fassier (France) and Matthew Bryza (the United States) have today issued a
statement on the outcomes of their visit to the region.
The statement says “presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia expressed their desire to
continue meeting regularly. The Co-Chairs will therefore seek to organize a summit
of the two Presidents in the coming months to discuss the key unresolved issues
within the Basic Principles for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.”
It goes on to say that “the Co-Chairs welcome the frank and open discussions of
these issues with the two Presidents since their last meeting in Zurich, and hope to
continue to make progress in the talks by clarifying and narrowing the differences
between the sides so that a peaceful settlement can be reached in the soonest
possible timeframe.”
According to the statement, “while welcoming the continuation of a dialogue between
the sides, the Co-Chairs condemn the ceasefire violation along the Line of Contact
on February 26, 2009, which occurred during a monitoring mission conducted by the
Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.”
The statement also notes “the Co-Chairs deplore that in 2008 over 30 people were
killed and more than 50 injured, and another six killed since the beginning of this
year, as a result of ceasefire violations.”
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(JB)