OSCE reviewed the situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan

Villa Madama, Rome

Rome [ENA] The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America) held intensive consultations in Paris on September 14. Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office (PRCiO) Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the meetings. The Co-Chairs reviewed the situation in the region with particular focus on new

developments following the mid-July violent escalation on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The Co-Chairs carefully considered and assessed the private and public messages and concerns of the sides. The Co-Chairs were briefed by the PRCiO on the security situation on the ground and welcomed his concrete preparations for the resumption of monitoring activities. The Co-Chairs spoke separately by phone with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and invited the ministers to meet individually with the Co-Chairs in person in the coming weeks to further clarify their respective positions, with the aim of resuming serious substantive negotiations without preconditions.

The Co-Chairs remain actively and fully engaged in facilitating negotiations for a peaceful and comprehensive settlement in accordance with their OSCE mandate. “Armenia is conducting a policy of illegal settlement across Azerbaijan's occupied territoriesand recently launched a policy of resettlement of Armenians from Lebanon there. Yesterdaynews of a family from Lebanon resettled in the city of Shusha – a destination of utmosthistorical and moral significance for Azerbaijan has been posted on social media. As the worldcountries, including Azerbaijan, are dealing with the issue of elimination of tragedy's consequences that befell Lebanon and offering humanitarian assistance, Armenia is exploiting this tragedy and

people's hardship, pushing their sordid agenda. Thereby, Armenia has once again demonstrated that it recognizes no moral values” Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev has declared Azeri State Agency AZERTAC.The Nagorno-Karabakh War, was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place in the late 1980s to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. The consequences of that conflict are still felt today.