YEREVAN. – France, as an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group co-chairing country, has this message: not to use force, and to definitely return to the negotiating table.
Harlem Désir, French Minister of State for European Affairs, on Monday told the aforesaid reporters at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, reflecting on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“I have brought a message to the effect that the [Karabakh peace] talks should resume,” Désir said. “The negotiations are needed to avoid the violence that happened recently.
“We must join our forces so we may forge a lasting peace based on the precepts of non-use of force, territorial integrity of countries, and self-determination of nations. It is this message of peace, justice, reconciliation with which I’m here today.”
The French official noted that this is the focus with which he will hold political talks in Yerevan on Monday, and in Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku, on Tuesday.
In his words, they seek the use of mechanisms to oversee incidents and the ceasing of any military action, so that the parties to the said conflict would be able to sit at the negotiating table and maintain ceasefire.
“This war has caused many deaths, pain and suffering to the two conflicting parties [i.e. Armenian and Azerbaijan],” Harlem Désir added. “We cannot say [it is] a frozen conflict. There is no month that there are no casualties.”
