German Foreign Minister Warns Against Freezing Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

BERLIN (Sputnik) — German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned on Wednesday that preserving the status quo in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region would only lead to new flare-ups of hostility in the future.

Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed a ceasefire on Tuesday, after more than three days of deadly fighting in the mountainous region.

"Those who expect to preserve the status quo risk to see more outbreaks [of violence] that will be happening in regular intervals," Steinmeier said after a phone call with the Armenian president.

Steinmeier described the truce as "very fragile" and said actions had been taken to defuse the current tensions and resolve the crisis once and for all.

Steps include efforts to have the conflicting sides lay down arms and resume peace talks, specifically within the group of mediators from Russia, France and the United States created under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the so-called OSCE Minsk Group.

The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988, when the Armenian-dominated autonomous region sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, before proclaiming independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The warring sides agreed to a cessation of hostilities in 1994.