OSCE Chairman to visit South Caucasus in the first half of 2013

Ukraine takes over the one-year OSCE chairmanship in  January 2013 . The decision was approved by the Ministerial Council of the OSCE participating states. The function of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office will be exercised by the foreign minister of the chairing country. Ukraine also intends to become instrumental in the Geneva International Discussions over South Caucasus. The region is sore with three frozen conflicts - in  Abkhazia , Nagorno-Karabakh, and  South Ossetia.
As OSCE 2013 chair  Ukraine aims to address both the long-standing and new challenges the OSCE member states face. They include early conflict prevention, solving longtime conflicts, post conflict restoration, overall regional safety and stability. Additionally, the country will pay attention to resolving  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The armed conflict  took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh[8] in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan.