Turkey proposes Minsk Group meeting on Nagorno-Karabakh

ANKARA

Turkey has proposed the Minsk Group to hold a special meeting where the three co-chairs, France, Russia and the U.S. would report on what they have done to secure a negotiated settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

“We propose a meeting of the Minsk Group in the format of 6+3+2. It would be useful. The three chairs of the group can report about their efforts to discuss why peace could not be found and because of who. We should definitely take such steps,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told the reporters at a press conference with visiting Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde on Oct. 13.

The Minsk Group, founded in 1994, consists of nine countries. France, Russia and the U.S. as its three permanent co-chairs and Turkey, Italy, Belarus, Germany, Sweden and Finland as members along with Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Turkey has long been criticizing the Minsk group chairs for not exerting genuine efforts for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, which encourages Armenia’s continued occupation of the Azerbaijani territories.

“Calls from the international community for the cessation of the conflicts are positive. We are not against them, but that would be a better indication if the international community would call on the Armenian withdrawal from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in line with the U.N. and OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] resolutions,” Çavuşoğlu said.

Sweden will resume the term chairmanship of the OSCE by Jan. 1, 2020, Linde said, informing that she has discussed the agenda of the Swedish term presidency with Çavuşoğlu.

Linde has expressed deep concern over the continued clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan despite a ceasefire announced on Oct 10.