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BAKU: OSCE sets up fact-finding mission to occupied Azeri lands

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  • BAKU: OSCE sets up fact-finding mission to occupied Azeri lands

    AzerNews, Azerbaijan
    Dec 29 2004

    OSCE sets up fact-finding mission to visit occupied Azeri lands

    The OSCE has set up a fact-finding mission to monitor the Azerbaijani
    lands occupied by Armenia. The mission includes the OSCE Minsk Group
    co-chairs and representatives from Germany, Italy, Finland, Sweden as
    well as the OSCE Secretariat, a diplomatic source told AssA-Irada.


    The mission is scheduled to arrive in Baku late in January-early in
    February 2005 to further visit Upper Garabagh and monitor the
    occupied lands. A report will be prepared after the monitoring is
    over.
    Late this November, the Azerbaijani government proposed to put the
    issue on the occupied territories on the agenda of the UN General
    Assembly session and establish a fact-finding mission within the
    OSCE.
    Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov has told
    Armenian media that the OSCE mission will conduct monitoring not in
    Upper Garabagh itself, but only in the seven regions adjacent to it.


    Merzlyakov said Armenia will provide suitable conditions for the work
    of the OSCE mission, while Azerbaijan will allegedly withdraw its
    proposal to discuss the illegal settlement of Armenians its occupied
    territories at the United Nations.
    Azerbaijani officials have not expressed their position on the matter
    yet.
    Commenting on the fact that Azerbaijani and Turkish representatives
    have not been included in the mission, chairman of the Center for
    Political Innovation and Technology Mubariz Ahmadoghlu said
    Azerbaijan has enough evidence to ensure that the mission experts
    will conduct an unbiased monitoring in the occupied territories.
    "Not only Armenia but also several international organizations,
    including the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors
    Without Borders, are engaged in purposeful settlement of population
    in Upper Garabagh and other occupied lands of Azerbaijan." The
    political analyst said that several families of Armenian descent, who
    became victims of an earthquake that hit Armenia in 1988, were
    settled in the Lachin region, another Azerbaijani territory under
    occupation.
    This fact was indirectly confirmed by German, Russian and Armenian
    representatives of an international organization on search of
    prisoners of war and missing people. They officially stated that all
    living conditions were created for mentally retarded Armenians in a
    mountainous area in the Lachin region.
    "Armenia will not be able to hide their large-scale activities on
    settling population in the occupied Azerbaijani lands," said
    Ahmadoghlu.

    Baku expects progress in January talks
    Baku expects considerable progress at the meeting of Azerbaijani and
    Armenian foreign ministers upcoming in January, Foreign Minister
    Elmar Mammadyarov told local ATV channel.
    "If Armenia continues to approach the issue seriously, as it did at
    the Sofia and Brussels meetings of foreign ministers, remarkable
    changes will be achieved in the Upper Garabagh conflict settlement."
    Asked whether the January meeting can be termed as a start of the
    second stage of Prague meetings, Mammadyarov said: "In general, I am
    opposed to breaking the talks into stages. The meeting should be
    considered continuation of the Prague process."
    The foreign minister added that the parties will set the exact time
    of the meeting early next month after a telephone conversation.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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