This week marks the third anniversary of the ceasefire in the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan. Ireland, with its partners in the European Union, is concerned to see that the ceasefire is developed into a comprehensive, peaceful and lasting settlement.
The OSCE Budapest Summit in December 1994 established the OSCE Minsk Conference on Nagorno-Karabakh. Since then the Minsk Group has been the principal vehicle for international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Despite intensive efforts by the Minsk Group and others it was not possible for consensus to be reached at the OSCE Lisbon Summit last December on the principles for a possible solution to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Following the failure to reach agreement, Ireland joined the majority of OSCE members at the Lisbon Summit in declaring, on behalf of the European Union, its full support for the principles for a settlement which had been proposed by the OSCE chairman in office and the co-chairmen of the Minsk Conference. These principles are territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Republic; legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh defined in an agreement based on self-determination which confers on Nagorno-Karabakh the highest degree of self-rule within Azerbaijan; guaranteed security for Nagorno-Karabakh and its whole population, including mutual obligations to ensure compliance by all the parties with the provisions of the settlement.