January 22, 2010 - 11:06 AMT
Trilateral meeting in Sochi to help Karabakh conflict resolution
Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, Ambassador Sergey Kapinos said Kazakhstan's chairmanship in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe can serve as the impetus for positive change in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process.

"The decision of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office to pay a visit to Transcaucasia testifies Kazakhstan's interest in resolution of the conflict," he told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Ambassador Kapinos also noted that the impending meeting between the Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents in Sochi can lead to some progress.

The conflict  between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out in 1988 as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched in the final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from 1991 to 1994. Since the ceasefire in 1994, sealed by Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the control of NKR defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group up till now.

With 56 States drawn from Europe, Central Asia and America, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security organization. It offers a forum for political negotiations and decision-making in the fields of early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation, and puts the political will of the participating States into practice through its unique network of field missions.