Armenia’s chief diplomat says progress possible on Nagorno-Karabakh

Associated Press Worldstream
June 3, 2004 Thursday

YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia’s chief diplomat on Thursday said that
negotiations over settling the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute may yield
progress in the near future.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are at odds over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
which Armenian forces seized from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. A 1994
cease-fire has largely held, but no final settlement has been reached.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said Thursday that “certain
progress” may be achieved on the issue within the next two months,
without elaborating further.

Negotiations are being conducted by a small group of diplomats from
both sides, under the auspices of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, who tend to refrain from making the details
of the talks public.