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OSCE Minsk group

  



On January 30, 1992, the Republic of Azerbaijan became a member of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and the same year, on July 8 it had signed its documents at the CSCE Helsinki Summit.
Since February 1992, Armenia - Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Garabagh conflict became the object of attention of the CSCE. In the middle of February, the special mission of CSCE visited Azerbaijan. On February 27- 28 at 7th meeting of the Committee of High-ranking officials of the CSCE held in Prague on the report of mission in the conflict zone was heard. In the document confirming that the Nagorno-Garabagh belongs to Azerbaijan, peaceful resolution of the conflict under the condition of changing of borders, was reflected.
At 8th meeting of the Committee of High-ranking officials of the CSCE held in Helsinki on March 13-14 the continuation of the conflict and ways of its peaceful political solution was discussed. After this meeting, the delegation headed by the chairman of the Committee of High-ranking officials of the CSCE Jan Cubish (Czechoslovakia), for the second time visited the conflict zone on March 19-23. The mission of delegation, which visited  Nagorno-Garabagh, Baku and Yerevan was to study the to the representation of the possibility of the cease-fire in Garabagh, deployment of observers of the CSCE in the conflict zone.

On March 23-24, 1992, at 9th meeting of the Committee of High-ranking officials of the CSCE held in Helsinki the conflicting parties were called for creation of all conditions for immediate cease- fire in the conflict zone and to call the conference on Nagorno-Garabagh within the framework of the CSCE as soon as possible. At the first additional meeting of the CSCE Council of Foreign Ministers held on March 24, the situation in Nagorno-Garabagh was discussed. CSCE Council of Ministers on the basis of the guarantee of the Committee of High-ranking officials had adopted a decision on convening peace conference on Nagorno-Garabagh in order to ensure the effectiveness of the negotiations in the direction of the peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Ministers agreed that the conference to be called in Minsk is to be held with participation of delegations from the United States, Russia, Turkey, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Czechoslovakia (it was later replaced by Hungary), Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
On May 1, 1992, at 10th  meeting of Committee of High ranking officials of the CSCE  held in Helsinki the Committee  adopted a decision on the terms of the conduct of meetings, the powers of the chairman and others issues on Nagorno-Karabakh. Minsk group established for realization of same name Minsk Conference should act in the direction of conflict resolution and after conflict resolving the member States of the Conference should gather in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, which was in neutral position to the conflict and adopt the Final document.
At Summit held in Budapest in December 1994, the co-chair institution was established in Minsk Group and the Conference. According to the decision made, Russia and Finland were assigned the co-chair functions. In January 1997, the trilateral co-chairs were established in the Minsk Conference and the Group and today the United States, Russia and France implement the co-chair functions. 



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