OSCE Minsk group hails Armenia’s commitment to reducing tension on border with Azerbaijan

YEREVAN, February 6. / ARKA /. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs from the USA, France and Russia welcomed Armenia’s commitment to reducing tensions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, the US co-chair James Warlick wrote in his Twitter microblog.

"We had a good meeting with Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We welcomed his commitment to the reduction of tension in the conflict zone," he wrote, according to RIA Novosti. He also posted a photo of the meeting.

Nalbandian’s meeting with Igor Popov (Russia), Pierre Andrieu (France) and James Warlick (USA), as well as the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk took place on Thursday night in Munich.

During the meeting Nalbandian drew the co-chairs’ attention to violation of ceasefire by Azerbaijan on the border with Armenia and on the line of contact with the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh. 

According to him, the leadership of Azerbaijan "hampers the peace process." At the same time, Nalbandian confirmed that Armenia will continue joint efforts with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Grouptowards a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh problem. 

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan, sought to secede from Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by succeeding referendum. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace agreement has been signed.

Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions have been under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh is the longest-running post-Soviet era conflict and has continued to simmer despite the relative peace of the past two decades, with snipers causing tens of deaths a year.-0-