Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov hailed positive the fact that Yerevan adopted revised version of Madrid Principles, Trend News reports.

“This will create an opportunity to continue the negotiation process and begin work on a large agreement on the settlement of the conflict,” the source quotes FM. He also noted that OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have not contacted him on the matter yet.

“We need to discuss further steps with the mediators,” Mammadyarov said at the March 19 press conference.

Yesterday, RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated that both sides keep on drafting working proposals on Madrid Principles, stressing that Armenian side continues to take Madrid Principles as a basis for Karabakh peace process.

The Nagorno-Karabakh (armed) conflict broke out back in 1991, when, after 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 conflict settlement 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 UN Security Council adopted in 1993, continuing to provoke arms race in the region and openly violating the basic principles of the international law, non-use of force or threat of force.

A.G.