The U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick will attend the meeting of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Saint Petersburg on June 20. The co-chairs expect the sides to follow up on the outcomes of the May 16 meeting in Vienna, James Warlick told APA on June 17.
"I look forward to attending the June 20 meeting as the U.S. Minsk Group co-chair. Specifically, we are hopeful the sides will finalize an agreement to implement an OSCE investigative mechanism and agree to resume negotiations on a comprehensive settlement", said Warlick.
Earlier, Natacha Rajakovic, the Spokesperson and Acting Deputy Head of Communication and Media Relations Section at OSCE said OSCE is not involved in the ongoing preparations for the trilateral meeting of the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, Serzh Sargsyan, Ilham Aliyev, and Vladimir Putin over Nagorno Karabakh, in St. Petersburg. Rajakovic refrained from any comments concerning the meeting and its date. She said the meeting will be held at the behest of Russia and recommended addressing all the questions to the Russian authorities.
Earlier, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov said Vladimir Putin will have vis-a-vis meetings with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts before the trilateral summit in Saint Petersburg on June 20.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out on February 28 1988 in the Azerbaijani Sumgait with massacre of Armenians as a peculiar response of Azerbaijanis to the peaceful demand of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous Region, part of the Azerbaijani SSR, to unite with the Armenian SSR. This resulted in other pogroms of Armenians in Baku, Kirovabad and other regions of Azerbaijan populated with Armenians. In 1991 Azerbaijan unleashed war against peaceful populations of Nagorno-Karabakh, expulsing ethnic Armenians from the territory of Azerbaijan. Dozens of thousands of peaceful residents on both parties were killed in the military actions, and hundreds of thousands were left homeless and have become refugees. In 1994 in Bishkek in mediation of the OSCE MG, the NKR, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Protocol on Ceasefire that is observed more or less so far. Since 1992 the OSCE Minsk Group represented by co-chairs from Russia, U.S. and France has been mediating in resolution of the conflict unleashed by Azerbaijan in 1988. At present the peace process is based on the Madrid Principles suggested by the OSCE MG in 2007 in Madrid and renovated in 2009.