Azerbaijan, Baku, August 12 / Trend J.Babayeva /
Diplomat Tina Kaidanov will replace Matthew Bryza on the posit of U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, but not on the post of co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the press service of the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan told Trend on August 12.
Being in Tbilisi, Matthew Bryza said that Tina Kaidanov will replace him on the post of OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, Trend reported according to Freedom radio earlier. Mrs Kaidanov was appointed U.S ambassador to Kosovo in 2008. The USA was one of the countries first recognizing independence of Kosovo declared in February 2008.
Before, Kaidanov held position of U.S special representative in Pristina (the capital of Kosovo). In her turn, Kaidanov arrived in Kosovo from Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). She held position of deputy head of U.S special mission within three years. Kaidanov was active participant of U.S policy in the Balkans.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7 districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Co-chairs of the Minsk Group are Russia, France and USA.