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7 June 2017

APA

Turkish President Erdogan slammed the OSCE Minsk Group and the UN Security Council for failing to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"What has the OSCE Minsk Group been doing for 22 years? Are not the Minsk Group co-chairing countries permanent members of the UN Security Council? Why are they still unable to solve this problem [Karabakh conflict]?” Erdogan said during a traditional Iftar dinner (fast-breaking) organized for foreign ambassador by the ruling Justice and Development Party, APA reported citing Ihlas agency.

“Why can’t they solve the Syrian and Iraqi problems? Could they solve the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict? They cannot, because if one out of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council says ‘no’, then there will be no solution,” added the Turkish leader.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996. 

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.