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10 May 2017

APA

The US and Russia will continue to cooperate on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, American Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Richard Hoagland said in an interview to the Voice of America, APA reported. 

“Regardless of the current state of relations between the US and Russia, I believe that these countries will continue to cooperate on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement. The close ties built between the co-chairing countries over the years allow me to state this,” said Hoagland, noting that relations between Washington and Moscow will not negatively affect the settlement process.

Moscow does not want war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is contrary to Russia’s interests and can destabilize the entire region, stressed the American co-chair.

According to the diplomat, despite the differences in the national interests of Russia and the US, as well as different approaches to the ongoing developments in the world, both countries can work jointly on the issues such as Nagorno-Karabakh, solve the problems together. 

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.