ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 16, 2004 Friday 2:31 PM Eastern Time

Baku, Yerevan must provide for Karabakh talks progress-OSCE

By Sevindzh Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman

BAKU

The leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, not the OSCE Minsk Group, are
responsible for the development of negotiations on the Karabakh
settlement, the Minsk Group co-chairmen said at a Friday press
conference in Baku.

The co-chairmen will continue supporting direct dialog between the
Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents and negotiations of the two
foreign ministers, U.S. Co-Chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Steven
Mann said. He said that he believed in peace settlement. Lasting
peace can be achieved only through political negotiations, and
attempts to settle the conflict with other methods can have tragic
consequences, he said.

The co-chairmen said they would not thrust any solutions on the
conflicting sides. They noted that the negotiations could be
successful only in case of compromises, whose degree was up to the
sides.

Russian Co-Chairman Yuri Merzlyakov said the three member countries
of the OSCE Minsk Group (Russia, the United States and France)
supported the principle of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.