WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988, when the autonomous region sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. The region proclaimed independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
"We are very concerned with the tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh because it can destabilize not only Armenia and Azerbaijan, but it can destabilize the whole region and even the wider Caucasus," Kvirikashvili said in a Tuesday speech at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC.
On April 2, ethnic tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani breakaway region with a predominantly Armenian population, escalated. A tenuous ceasefire agreement was reached on April 5, but has reportedly been violated on a nearly daily basis.
"There are Russian commitments to Armenia…there are Turkish commitments to Azerbaijan, and you can imagine how disastrous it can be if this conflict goes further," he stated.
The Georgian government recently offered to serve as a mediator and host peace negotiations, which were previously brokered under the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Minsk format.
