Tweet
MINSK GROUP CALLS FOR END TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT
Voice of America
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/03/22/minsk-group-calls-for-end-to-nagorno-karabakh-conflict/
March 22 2012
Foreign ministers from the United States, Russia and France are urging
Azerbaijan and Armenia to take steps to end the conflict over the
disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe made the call in a
statement issued Thursday to mark the 20th anniversary of the formal
request to convene a conference on the issue.
The three countries comprise the so-called Minsk Group, an
international panel trying to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Thursday's statement calls on both sides to demonstrate the "political
will" needed to achieve a lasting and peaceful settlement.
It says people in the region have suffered most from the consequences
of war, adding that any delay in reaching a settlement will only
prolong their hardships.
Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region deep inside
Azerbaijan, declared independence from the Baku government in 1988,
triggering a six-year war that claimed 35,000 lives and left more
than 1 million people homeless.
Major fighting ended after a 1994 cease-fire, but there are frequent
reports of firefights along the border.
Repeated international efforts to broker a peace deal have failed,
and border tensions between Armenian-backed forces and Azerbaijani
troops remain high.
Voice of America
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/03/22/minsk-group-calls-for-end-to-nagorno-karabakh-conflict/
March 22 2012
Foreign ministers from the United States, Russia and France are urging
Azerbaijan and Armenia to take steps to end the conflict over the
disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe made the call in a
statement issued Thursday to mark the 20th anniversary of the formal
request to convene a conference on the issue.
The three countries comprise the so-called Minsk Group, an
international panel trying to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Thursday's statement calls on both sides to demonstrate the "political
will" needed to achieve a lasting and peaceful settlement.
It says people in the region have suffered most from the consequences
of war, adding that any delay in reaching a settlement will only
prolong their hardships.
Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region deep inside
Azerbaijan, declared independence from the Baku government in 1988,
triggering a six-year war that claimed 35,000 lives and left more
than 1 million people homeless.
Major fighting ended after a 1994 cease-fire, but there are frequent
reports of firefights along the border.
Repeated international efforts to broker a peace deal have failed,
and border tensions between Armenian-backed forces and Azerbaijani
troops remain high.