The OSCE Permanent Council will hold a special meeting in Vienna with the participation of members of the Minsk Group on a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The OSCE Minsk Group’s co-chairs Igor Popov (Russia), Pierre Andrieu (France) and James Warlick (the US) will inform the Council about the situation and further steps to find a solution to the conflict.
The participants of the Minsk Group, which also includes representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Turkey, will hold meetings and consultations, RIA Novosti reports.
Recall, on the night of April 2 all frontier positions of Azerbaijan were exposed to heavy fire from large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and guns. In addition, Azerbaijani settlements near the front line, densely populated by civilians, were shelled.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US, are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
