The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs will hold consultations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Moscow on Sept. 8.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ambassadors Igor Popov (the Russian Federation), James Warlick (the United States of America), and Pierre Andrieu (France) arrived in Moscow to hold next consultations, APA reports.

The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk will also attend the consultations.

The main purpose of the Moscow consultations is to coordinate the efforts of the three countries [Russia, the US and France] on the conflict’s settlement

Particular attention will be paid to the review of the implementation of the agreements reached at the summits on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Vienna on May 16 and St. Petersburg on June 20.

Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the meeting is one of the planned consultations which are regularly held in Washington, Paris and Moscow. The main purpose of the Moscow consultations is to coordinate the efforts of the three countries [Russia, the US and France] on the conflict’s settlement, Russian Foreign Ministry told APA’s Moscow bureau. The ministry also added that the co-chairs will be received by Russian Foreign Minister as well.

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 OSCE 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, 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.