The OSCE Minsk Group should be ashamed of fact that for 20 years they have been visiting the region, without having achieved any success,” said Ali Hasanov, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chairman of the State Committee for Affairs of Refugees and IDPs, June 20.
The co-chairs met with the Armenian President on June 10, and with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on June 19. They also held consultations with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence in both countries. The visit to Baku also included a meeting with the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno Karabakh.
In between the trips to Yerevan and Baku, the Co-Chairs traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh (12 June), where they met with the de facto authorities.
This regional mission follows a tripartite ministerial meeting in Moscow on April 28.
During the talks, the Co-Chairs expressed deep concern about the recent ceasefire violations, which have led to casualties caused along the Line of Contact. They appealed to both governments to avoid further escalation.
“The Co-Chairs should call Armenia as an occupant and demand to free the occupied territory. If they don’t do that, I don’t expect anything from them,” said Ziyafet Askerov, the deputy speaker of parliament on the eve of co-chairs’ visit.
The Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group are Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation,; Stéphane Visconti of France, and Richard Hoagland of the United States of America. During the June visit they were accompanied by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.
