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Since 1992, the OSCE Minsk Group has been searching for a solution to the Karabakh conflict. The composition of the Minsk Group co-chairing countries initially was subject to rotation, but since 1996 Russia, the United States and France have been co-heads of the group on a permanent basis. This format is considered to be optimal and is accepted by the parties to the conflict.

The Group’s 18 years of efforts have yielded little. Over time the parties have been presented with four proposals which by their concepts were not very different from each other. The basis of such proposals has been the idea of a possible self-determination for the population of Karabakh in the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of the Azerbaijani SSR. In return, Karabakh would give up control of territories outside the boundaries of that region to Azerbaijan, all the return of refugees and the deployment of peacekeeping forces. However, neither the parties to the conflict, nor the co-chairs have been able to reach consensus either on the number of districts that should be returned, the composition of peacekeeping troops, or the date of the referendum on Nagorno-Karabakh’s status.

Periodically, the co-chairs announced the dates of the conflict settlement, showing determination to get a resolution to the protracted problem sooner rather than later. This time around the co-chairs have also set a deadline for reaching final agreement.

In a statement issued on the eve of their visit and published on the OSCE official website, the negotiators, namely Ambassadors Igor Popov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France, and Robert Bradtke of the United States, expect to be particularly active in the months leading up to the OSCE Summit.

The Co-Chairs visit to Baku, Yerevan, and Nagorno-Karabakh September 6-10 is to discuss “additional actions necessary to strengthen the cease-fire, to promote a spirit of compromise by all parties, and to finalize modalities for further action.”

During the third full week of September, the Co-Chairs will travel to Washington, D.C. and then to New York to work with the sides on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.

Between late September and mid October, the Co-Chairs will return to the region to conduct a field assessment mission to observe the humanitarian situation in the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh that they had discussed previously with the sides in recent months and the principle of which had already been agreed with the sides before summer. A team of high-level advisors and experts, including representatives from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and others, are expected to accompany the Co-Chairs on their mission, which will be the first international mission in these territories since the OSCE fact finding mission in early 2005. Shortly thereafter, the Co-Chairs will brief the OSCE Minsk Group in Vienna on their findings. Then the Co-Chairs will present their annual activity report to the OSCE Permanent Council, while preparing for the OSCE Summit in Astana.

“During this period of intense activity, the Co-Chairs urge all parties to respect strictly the cease-fire and to exercise restraint on the ground, to make every effort to foster the spirit of compromise necessary to make progress, to abstain from inflammatory public statements, and to demonstrate the convincing political will to engage in serious dialogue. In response to the most recent incidents along the Line of Contact, they also strongly condemn any violation of the cease-fire, in particular incursions across the Line of Contact, deplore useless loss of life, and recall the statement of their Ministers in Almaty, that the use of force created the current situation, and its use again would only lead to suffering, devastation, and a legacy of conflict and hostility that would last for generations,” the OSCE co-chairs said in their statement.