Finland, Helsinki, 4 Dec / Trend corr. I.Gusatinskaya/ OSCE Foreign Ministers will adopt a special declaration on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, OSCE Special Representative for the South Caucasus Heikki Talvitie said to Trend in Helsinki on 4 Dec.
On 4 Dec, Helsinki is hosting a meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers. Conflict settlement is one of the topics under discussion.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost the Nagorno-Karabakh, except of Shusha and Khojali, in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian Armed Forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and Nagorno-Karabakh's seven surrounding regions. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The countries keep on peace negotiating. OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by USA, Russia, and France is engaged in peace settling of the conflict.
Next year Greece will assume the duties of OSCE Chairman-in-Office and many issues will depend on how Greece will join settling of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Talvitie said.
Recent progress in settling of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict provides a good basis to find a solution. Constructive character of recent meetings between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in St. Petersburg in June and in Moscow in November is an important step to settle the conflict.
The latest meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers took place in early November during the trilateral Moscow meeting among Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Russia's Dmitriy Medvedev and Armenia's Serzh Sargsyan. As a result Presidents signed the Moscow Declaration.
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