Azerbaijan agrees
"Azerbaijan accepts the proposal of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs according to which Armenian forces will leave Kelbajar and Lachin in 5 years," Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammedyarov announced during today's press conference. According to him, the process is being prolonged due to Armenia's position.
Mammedyarov says Armenia had given consent to dislocating Armenian forces from the two regions and handing them over to Azerbaijan's control during Kocharyan's administration.
"At the time, there was a proposal for a ten-year period which Baku didn't accept and proposed one year. In the initial stage of talks during Serzh Sargsyan's term, Armenia proposed 7 years, while Azerbaijan proposed 3 years. Currently, the OSC Minsk Group Co-Chairs propose the five-year period and Azerbaijan agrees," announced Mammedyarov.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister also informed that during the last meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents in St. Petersburg, Russia made a number of proposals to settle the conflict among which was the return of Kelbajar and Lachin. "This period is seen in the Madrid Principles as well," said Mammedyarov.
Speaking about the allocation of peacekeepers in the conflict zone, Elmar Mammedyarov said that the OSCE Budapest Summit had taken the decision to not include the military groupings of OSCE MG Co-Chairing countries and countries of the region in the peacekeeping forces.
