Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved this year, OSCE Special Representative on Nagorno-Karabakh and Georgia Goran Lennmarker told the journalists in Baku, March 15.

According to him, the conflict lasts for years despite the ceasefire agreement, and both sides have losses.

The military showdown cannot be the settlement to Karabakh conflict, he noted.

“Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be included in the negotiation process. There is a well-known format for the negotiations within OSCE Minsk Group. The talks should continue in this format,” Lennmarker said.

The Nagorno-Karabakh (armed) conflict broke out back in 1991, when, subsequent to the demand for self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh people, Azerbaijani authorities attempted to resolve the issue through ethnic cleansings, carried out by Soviet security forces (KGB special units) under the pretext of the implementation of the passport regime and by launching of large-scale military operations, which left thousands dead and caused considerable material damage. A cease-fire agreement was established in 1994. Negotiations on the settlement of the conflict are being conducted under the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen (Russia, USA, France) and on the basis of their Madrid proposals, presented in November, 2007.

Azerbaijan has not yet implemented the 4 resolutions of the U.N. Security Council adopted in 1993, by continuing to provoke arms race in the region and openly violating on of the basic principles of the international law on non-use of force or threat of force.

L.A.