Azerbaijan

On January 30, 1992, at the time of intensifying the conflict further already independent republics Armenia and Azerbaijan became members of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in in Europe (now OSCE) at meeting of the Council of Ministers meeting of this organization held in Prague. At the same meeting, the organization decided to send a mission to the region to deal with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The mission visited the region of conflict on February 13. In this case, it was the first international initiative in order to achieve peace in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, the mission did not achieve anything and the ethnic cleansing continued by Armenian forces in villages of Nagorno-Karabakh populated by Azerbaijanis. Finally, in March 1992, at the CSCE Helsinki meeting, which is concerned with the deepening of conflict, it has been decided to hold a conference in Minsk the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. The working format - Minsk Group was established at Minsk conference with participation of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus as the host country, as well as Czechoslovakia (the Czech Republic and Slovakia from 1993), France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Turkey and the United States (total 12 countries). Later although the Minsk Conference was not convened, Minsk Group was formed as the mediating institution of the OSCE for Karabakh conflict. (Since 1997 the institute of three co-chairs functions in group with the participation of the U.S, Russia and France).

During this period, the convening by CSCE the Minsk Conference on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to achieve peace had been accompanied by activation of Iran. Iran, having land borders with both countries of the conflict has initiated direct talks between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. As a result, on May 7 and 8, 1992 in Tehran the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia (Yaqub Mammadov and Levon Ter-Petrosyan) had a meeting. As a result of two-day talks the joint statement was adopted on peaceful settlement of Karabakh conflict. However, while talks were carried out in Tehran, the Armenian military forces had launched an offensive on Shusha and at the next day of adoption of Tehran Declaration the city was occupied.

In the summer of 1992 battles in Karabakh were intensified further and on June 1 the first negotiations on the Karabakh settlement began in the city of Rome under the auspices of the CSCE. Besides Azerbaijan and Armenia representatives of the countries represented at the Minsk Group took part in the discussions. The agreement on this format was obtained at the CSCE’s Helsinki summit in March. However, the talks in Rome had no results and initiatives aimed at cessation of military operations were unsuccessful.