Armenian FM and OSCE official discuss Karabakh peace process
Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian and Marcel Pesko, director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Center, discussed on Thursday the process of the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Armenian foreign ministry said presenting the current situation in the conflict zone, Nalbandian said that Armenia is committed to exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group.
During the meeting the two men also discussed a number of issues related to the prevention of conflicts in the OSCE region, the ministry said.
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 a successful 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-