The new US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Andrew J. Schofer, will pay his first visit to Baku and Yerevan this week to meet with local officials and to get a firsthand look at the situation on the ground, the US Embassy in Azerbaijan told AzVision.az on Monday.

“While in the region, Mr. Schofer will also join his fellow Minsk Group co-chairs for high-level meetings,” said the embassy.

“The U.S. supports a negotiated settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and will continue to engage actively with the sides as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group. Mr. Schofer, as the U.S. Co-Chair, supports the US’ longstanding policy, shared by the Minsk Group co-chairs, that a just settlement must be based on international law, which includes the Helsinki Final Act and the principles of the non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity, and equal rights and self-determination,” the embassy added.

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.

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