NATO not intended to interfere in Karabakh conflict
NATO is not intended to interfere in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, James Appathurai, the NATO secretary general’s special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, made his remarks at a press conference in Moscow on Monday, Russian Ria news agency reported.
"NATO does not see its role in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, although we are concerned at the current relationship between the two countries," Appathurai said.
He added that the alliance did not intend to take a role in the settlement of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia conflicts in Georgia either.
NATO has many times backed the OSCE Minsk Group in its work to mediate a solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
The two South Caucasus countries fought a bitter war over Armenia's claims on the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended with a cease-fire in 1994 but no long-term peace deal. Armenian armed forces occupy a swathe of Azerbaijani territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.