Azerbaijan's President solicits OSCE intervention during visit of Chairman-in-Office
(OSCE)OSCE Chairman-in-Office Jaime Gama (centre) meets with the
President of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan, Mr. Murtuz
Aleskerov (centre left), Baku, 7 March 2002. (OSCE) Photo details
LISBON, 8 March 2002 - The President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, has requested the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Portugal's Foreign Minister Jaime Gama, to use all his influence to peacefully solve the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh before the end of the Portuguese Chairmanship.
The request came during a 90 minute-meeting with President Aliyev, in a key part of the scheduled visit by Foreign Minister Gama to the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan was the third country, after Armenia and Georgia, which was visited on this four-day trip.
Sounding determined to find a peaceful solution to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, President Aliyev said to journalists that, "ten years is a long time" to solve a problem that has left 900,000 internally-displaced persons and refugees.
In response, the Chairman-in-Office reiterated the decision of the Portuguese Presidency of the OSCE to develop all possible efforts to "cope with the expectations" of the two parties in the conflict, and to "reinvigorate" the work of the so-called Minsk Group of nations, which was created in 1992 and remains in charge of this matter.
The request came during a 90 minute-meeting with President Aliyev, in a key part of the scheduled visit by Foreign Minister Gama to the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan was the third country, after Armenia and Georgia, which was visited on this four-day trip.
Sounding determined to find a peaceful solution to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, President Aliyev said to journalists that, "ten years is a long time" to solve a problem that has left 900,000 internally-displaced persons and refugees.
In response, the Chairman-in-Office reiterated the decision of the Portuguese Presidency of the OSCE to develop all possible efforts to "cope with the expectations" of the two parties in the conflict, and to "reinvigorate" the work of the so-called Minsk Group of nations, which was created in 1992 and remains in charge of this matter.