France fully committed to lasting solution to Karabakh conflict
06 April 2017
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France reiterates its belief that the status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh is unsustainable and that there can be no military solution to the conflict, reads the statement made by the Permanent Representation of France to the OSCE regarding the first anniversary of the cessation of hostilities that took place in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone on April 2-5, 2016, AzVision.az reported.
“As co-chair of the Minsk Group, France had worked with its Russian and American partners to stop the fighting and resume negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said the statement.
“France calls on the parties to respect the commitments made at the Vienna summit on May 16, 2016 and the St. Petersburg summit on June 20, 2016, especially the ceasefire regime, confidence-building measures and resumption of negotiations,” the permanent representation said in its statement.
“As the French president reiterated during his recent talks with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts in Paris, France remains fully committed to a negotiated and lasting solution to the conflict for the stability and prosperity of the whole region,” noted the permanent mission.
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.
