Karabakh Residents Block Road During OSCE Minsk Group’s Visit

Residents of Kashatagh (Lachin) blocked the road during a May 17 visit of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs James Warlick (US), Igor Popov (Russia), and Jacques Faure (France) to Karabakh, greeting them with a protest demonstration.

The co-chairs got out of their car and spoke with protestors. Also with them was soon-to-be OSCE Minsk Group French Co-Chair Pierre Andieux and Karabakh foreign minister Karen Mirzoyan, reports Russian news agency Regnum [RU].

During the rally, demonstrators expressed outrage over the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs' recent joint statement. They were also outraged by US Co-Chair James Warlick's May 7 statement outlining the six points necessary for a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. 

The Karabakh residents, in particular, did not like the point about "the occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh should be returned to Azerbaijani control," to which Ambassador Warlick, without going into details, said: "Negotiations are ongoing."

The mediators then had a closed-door meeting with head of the Kashatagh (Lachin) administration Suren Khachatryan. The co-chairs also met with President of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan on May 18.

Earlier, the co-chairs visited Armenia to discuss Karabakh settlement with the country's leadership. A visit to Baku is also planned.