The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stéphane Visconti of France and Andrew Schofer as for the US made a statement on the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia on Friday, 2nd October 2020. The statement is as follows:
The Co-Chairs also stress that participation in the escalating violence by external parties undermines efforts to achieve lasting peace in the region.
Recalling the October 1 statement of the Presidents of the three Co-Chair countries, the Co-Chairs once again call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the resumption of substantive negotiations, in good faith and without preconditions.
The Co-Chairs also call urgently for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to enable the repatriation of remains of fallen servicemen in coordination with the OSCE and ICRC.”
The OSCE Minsk Group
The Minsk Group was founded in 1992 to encourage a peaceful way for the Nagorno-Karabagh issue which is still ongoing between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It was founded by the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The OSCE Minsk Process started upon the request of the head of the OSCE Council meeting in Helsinki on 24 March 1992 to open the way for a solution so that the Karabakh conflict can be resolved as soon as possible through negotiations. For this purpose, a conference meeting was requested in the city of Minsk, but this has not yet taken place as of the end of 2009.
At the meeting held in Budapest on December 6, 1994, it was adopted to establish co-chairmanship institutions for the Minsk Process and these co-chairs to be the USA, France and Russia. These co-chairs are obliged to hold meetings with all relevant countries and institutions, especially Azerbaijan and Armenia, which are the parties to the problem, and to report the results of these meetings to the Minsk Group.
