Baku/20.12.13/Turan : December 19 , 2013 - The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Jacques Faure of France, and James Warlick of the United States of America) and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador AndrzejKasprzyk, travelled to the region December 15-19 to discuss recent developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.
The Co-Chairs met with Azerbaijani President Aliyev on December 15 in Baku, and with Armenian President Sargsian on December 16 in Yerevan. They travelled to Nagorno-Karabakh on December 17 to meet with the de facto authorities.
The Presidents and the Co-Chairs discussed the outcome of the November 19 summit meeting in Vienna, and the subsequent meeting of their Foreign Ministers in Kyiv on December 4-5. They expressed their resolve to continue building on these substantive talks in January 2014 . The Co-Chairs noted that recent violence on the border undermines prospects for peace. They encouraged the sides to refrain from further actions that could increase tensions, and to work to maintain an atmosphere conducive to progress at the negotiating table.
The Co-Chairs will travel to Switzerland for consultations with the incoming Chairperson in Office of the OSCE in January, followed by a meeting of the two Foreign Ministers to prepare for the next summit. -16D-
Politics
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Aide to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev is on a visit to Iran, where he met with Adviser to the President of the Islamic Republic Mehdi Sanayi.
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On January 31, the trial of opposition politician Tofig Yagublu continued at the Baku Serious Crimes Court, where the examination of documents resumed. Yagublu pointed out the falsification of the search protocols related to the search at his home. He drew attention to the fact that the protocol stated that on December 14, 2023, at 16:00, the investigator completed the questioning of the "victim" and decided to conduct a search.
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Elvin Zeynalov, a religious activist living in the village of Mashtaga, was detained on January 31 around noon by individuals in plain clothes outside a store near his home. According to his relatives, later in the evening, Zeynalov was brought back home by people in black clothing, who conducted a search. They took Zeynalov's pants from the wardrobe, put marijuana in the pocket, then "seized" the drugs, filmed the video, and then took the activist away again.
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During the winter session of PACE at the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg, a "parallel event" was held on January 30 dedicated to the "alarming human rights crisis in Azerbaijan." The hearings were organized by the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and PACE member, co-chair of the Group of Unified European Left (Group of the Unified European), Spanish parliamentarian Laura Castel Fort.
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