Kazakhstan Pushes for Karabakh Peace

Kazakhstan, which now chairs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, declared on February 16 that the OSCE will step up efforts to precipitate a settlement of the 22-year Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh.

Kazakhstan will work to add "fresh impulse" to nearly two decades of peace talks, said Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Sudabayev, who now serves as chairman of the OSCE. "[B]ut at the same time we are convinced that the key to resolution lies in the hands of [both] sides . . ." Sudabayev was quoted as saying by Russia's RIA-Novosti news agency. Sudabayev called on both Armenia and Azerbaijan to remove from the conflict zone snipers who reportedly are responsible for hundreds of military and civilian deaths since open hostilities ended in 1994.

The US, Russia and France have led the Karabakh negotiations under the OSCE's auspices, but no breakthrough has taken place to date. Many Armenian and Azerbaijani observers warn that fighting could resume at any time.