Commenting on the recent statement by the OSCE Minsk Group’s American co-chair, Azerbaijan’s foreign minister has said that his country supports a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“The status quo is unacceptable. It is unacceptable for the Armenians as well; the country is not developing, and it faces demographic challenges. We call on the Armenian side to solve this issue,” the APA News Agency quotes Elmar Mammadyarov as saying.
In a speech at the Carnegie Endowment on Wednesday, Ambassador James Warlick underlined six elements as key parts of a future peace deal.
The OSCE Minsk Group, composed of US, French and Russian co-chairs, has been spearheading the peace efforts over Karabakh since 1992.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus Republics broke out in 1988 when the Armenian majority of the then autonomous region declared its intention of breaking away from Azerbaijan. In a referendum held on December 10, 1991, the population voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence (99.89%). The move was followed by Azerbaijan’s large-scale military operations against Nagorno-Karabakh and seven neighboring regions. The Ceasefire Accord, which went into effect in May 1994, formally put an end to the armed attacks in the conflict zone.