The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs deeply regret any loss of life in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and express their sincere condolences, US co-chairs of the OSCE MG James Warlick told local media.

He commented on the death of an Azerbaijani soldier on the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.

Azerbaijani soldier Sahil Mammadov was killed October 5 evening as the country’s army positions were shelled by Armenian armed forces on the contact line of the two countries’ troops.

“We urge the sides to respect the ceasefire and take any steps to reduce tensions along the line of contact and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border,” said Warlick. “Such steps are necessary to create the conditions for negotiations that can lead to a settlement.”

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.