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  • OSCE Mission in Armenia

    OSCE MISSION IN ARMENIA

    Azat Artsakh - Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
    04 Feb 05

    The OSCE mission consisting of 17 members and headed by the head of
    the OSCE department of the foreign ministry of Germany Emily Haber
    started its work in NKR on January 31 and will stay in Nagorni
    Karabakh for 10 days. The monitoring group was set up after Azerbaijan
    lodged a complaint in the UN that Armenia fulfills a policy of
    re-settlement of the liberated areas adjacent to Karabakh. In this
    connection the negotiations for the settlement of the Karabakh problem
    is threatened. By the demand of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen
    Azerbaijan withdrew the question from the agenda of the UN General
    Assembly session. Instead it was decided to set up a monitoring group
    in the framework of theOSCE which will check the facts presented by
    Azerbaijan. In this connection the NKR foreign ministry made an
    official statement emphasizing that Karabakh does not hide anything
    from the international community and a small number of refugees from
    Azerbaijan live in the territories controlled by Karabakh. Mrs. Haber
    told the Karabakh journalists that the group will make a technical and
    not political report. Besides, she informed that during the meeting
    with the NKR president the members of the group got a lot of important
    information for their further work. The monitoring group will start
    its work at the region of Karvachar and will visit all the liberated
    regions of NKR. The standpoint of Armenia in reference to the arrival
    of the OSCE experts group is the following: â=80=9CCome and control.'
    This statement was made by the vice speaker of the parliament of
    Armenia Vahan Hovhannissian at his press conference on January
    28. According to him, in the recent years Azerbaijan keeps raising in
    international organizations the question of uncontrollability of the
    territories adjacentto Nagorni Karabakh, where allegedly drug
    business, trafficking and crime is thriving.` Those international
    organizations which are concerned about these questionsmay send their
    groups of experts for the thorough study of the situation. We are not
    against such missions,' stated Vahan Hovhannissian. By the way,he
    reminded that the population of those regions mainly consists of
    Armenians forced out of the towns Dashkesan, Kirovabad, Baku and
    Sumgait of Azerbaijan. â=80=9CAnd what else do they have to do?' asks
    Vahan Hovhannissian. `Naturally, people living there take part in the
    elections to the municipalities and live a normal life.' `If this is
    a crime then nothing has changed since the beginning of the 20th
    century,' said the parliamentarian, adding that `a correct statement
    of the question may have a positive solution for the Armenian party.'
    The leader of the Azerbaijani Organization for Liberation of Karabakh
    Akif Naghli told the Azerbaijani news agency `Kavkazski Uzel' that the
    visit of the OSCE mission to the region is the achievement of the
    Armenian foreign policy because â=80=9Cthere are no representatives of
    Azerbaijan and Turkey in the delegation'.Besides, A. Naghi mentioned
    that the mission must by all means pass through the territory of
    Azerbaijan. Touching upon the problem of security of the mission the
    chairman of the OLK said that the OSCE need not lay the responsibility
    on Azerbaijan. A. Naghi said that in case of a positive assessment of
    the OSCEmission the OLK will organize actions after the report of the
    mission in favour of Armenia. The OSCE experts group is headed by the
    head of the OSCE department of the foreign ministry of Germany Emily
    Margaret Haber. Besides the representatives of the Minsk Group
    countries the delegation includes experts from Finland, Italy, Sweden
    and Germany. The experts will conduct monitoring in the regions
    controlled by the Karabakh armed forces to find out whether the claims
    of the Azerbaijanis that those territories are widely populated by
    Armenians are true. Commenting on the meetings with the OSCE Minsk
    Group co-chairmen and the international group of experts the
    Azerbaijani minister of foreign affairs Araz Azimov announced that
    re-settlement of the `occupied territories ofAzerbaijan' is carried
    out with the direct involvement of Armenia. He mentioned that during
    the meeting with the OSCE delegation and the Minsk Group co-chairmen
    the Azerbaijani party presented to the mission video and audio records
    which testify to the re-settlement of the `occupied territories', as
    well asgeographic maps. According to him, more than 23 thousand
    people have illegally settled in the ` occupied territories'. Azimov
    emphasized that this has a negative impact on the negotiations for the
    settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Answering the question of the
    news agency `Regnum' what facts Baku presented to the group, Youri
    Merzlyakov said that those were `satellite photos testifying to the
    existence of settlements in the territories adjacent to Nagorni
    Karabakh.' `We shall find out if there are people, where they came
    from, when and whether by their will,' said the Russian diplomat. The
    minister of defence of Nagorni Karabakh Seyran Ohanian said that he
    has a normal attitude toward such monitoring.` Those territories are
    under the strict control of the NKR government. However, we cannot
    forbid our citizens to farm in those territories. As to the fate of
    the territories, the great talks are ahead and any decision on these
    territories must be made in the framework of this process,' said the
    minister of defence of NKR.

    AA.
    04-02-2005

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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