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Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict

OSCE chair to visit Baku, Yerevan next week

The unresolved conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh remains a serious challenge to peace and security on the global scale, Linde said

UNITED NATIONS, March 10. /TASS/. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office Anne Linde told the UN Security Council on Wednesday she was set to visit Azerbaijan and Armenia next week to discuss settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"As chairperson-in-office I fully support continued engagement with the participants and I will use my visit to Baku and Yerevan next week to express my expectations that the sides recommit to talks on sustainable political solution," she said.

Linde added that the unresolved conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh remains a serious challenge to peace and security on the global scale.

"Last autumn we witnessed renewed outbreak of the conflict resulting in numerous casualties and immense sufferings, including among civilians," she said. "The ceasefire achieved in November with assistance of Russia brought about a working stop to hostilities. Now we must seize this moment to renew efforts towards a lasting peace agreement."

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them.

On November 9, 2020 Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. Under the deal, Azerbaijan and Armenia maintained the positions that they had held, some of the districts were handed back to Baku, and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the contact line and to the Lachin corridor, which links Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

The talks seeking peace for Nagorno-Karabakh have been ongoing within the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), co-chaired by Russia, the United States and France, since 1992.

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