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Spokesperson: OSCE not involved in preparations for summit on Karabakh

OSCE Acting Spokesperson Natacha Rajakovic said the European security agency was not involved in work to organize the summit in Russia’s St. Petersburg and could not comment on it

GENEVA, June 14. /TASS/. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) does not take part in work to pave the way for a three-party summit on the settlement in Nagorno Karabakh, OSCE Acting Spokesperson Natacha Rajakovic told Tass on Tuesday.

She said the European security agency was not involved in work to organize the summit in Russia’s St. Petersburg and could not comment on it.

The Kremlin confirmed on June 10 that preparations were under way for a three-party (Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) summit on the settlement in Nagorno Karabakh. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov named St. Petersburg as the possible venue.

"Work is conducted in this sphere, and we do not rule out that such meetings will be held," Peskov noted. "If it is finally confirmed, we will provide information, like we always do," he added.

Last week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and French Ambassador to Moscow Jean-Maurice Ripert discussed preparations for the trilateral summit on Nagorno-Karabakh in St. Petersburg. "During the meeting, the sides discussed issues connected with international efforts on resolving the crisis in Ukraine, as well as preparations for the trilateral summit on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement in St. Petersburg," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry did not gove the concrete date of the summit.

Nagorno-Karabakh sought independence from Azerbaijan at the end of the 1980s, which resulted in a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia that claimed the lives of 25,000-30,000 people between 1988 and 1994. Since then, the territory has been controlled by Armenia.

On April 2, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh rapidly deteriorated when the parties to the Karabakh conflict accused each other of violating truce along the front line.

On April 5 Azerbaijan’s Chief of Staff Col. Gen. Nadjmeddin Sadykov and his Armenian counterpart Col. Gen. Yury Khachaturov in Moscow with Russia’s mediation. At the talks the sides reached an agreement on cessation of hostilities at the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces. On the same day, the defense ministries of the two countries announced that the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh would start at 12am local time.

Though the ceasefire mostly holds, both sides continue to report occasional violations of ceasefire on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The OSCE Minsk Group acts as a mediator. The group is led by co-chairs France, Russia and the United States.