Armenia

OIC Wants Armenian Troops Out Of Karabakh

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (file photo) (AFP) June 21, 2006 -- The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has called for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of ethnic Armenian forces from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in Azerbaijan.

It also called on member states to support Azerbaijan "on the issue of the full restoration of its territorial integrity."


The calls came in a declaration signed at the end of a three-day meeting of OIC foreign ministers in Baku.


(Turan, AFP)

The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

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In February 1988, the local assembly in Stepanakert, the local capital of the Azerbaijani region of NAGORNO-KARABAKH, passed a resolution calling for unification of the predominantly ethnic-Armenian region with Armenia. There were reports of violence against local Azeris, followed by attacks against Armenians in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait. In 1991-92, Azerbaijani forces launched an offensive against separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, but the Armenians counterattacked and by 1993-94 had seized almost all of the region, as well as vast areas around it. About 600,000 Azeris were displaced and as many as 25,000 people were killed before a Russian-brokered cease-fire was imposed in May 1994.

CHRONOLOGY: For an annotated timeline of the fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh in 1988-94 and the long search for a permanent settlement to the conflict, click here.

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