"Each side can introduce any issue to the UN General Assembly agenda. But decisions will only be advisory if a conclusion is made at all," Yuri Merzlyakov, Russia's co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, said commenting on the GUAM initiative (a grouping of four former Soviet republics - Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) to raise the issue of frozen conflicts in the former Soviet Union.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group was created in 1992 to encourage a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. The group is co-chaired by U.S., Russian and French representatives.
Bernard Fasier, the French co-chairman, said that to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict painstaking and thorough planning is required instead of staging a show.
The French diplomat added that the format for the talks on conflict resolution would not change in the near future.
The conflict between the two former Soviet republics over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population, first erupted in 1988 when it claimed independence from Azerbaijan to join Armenia.
Over 30,000 people were killed on both sides between 1988 and 1994, and over 100 died following a 1994 ceasefire. Nagorno-Karabakh remained in Armenian hands, but tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia have persisted.
