MINISTERS OF ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN DISCUSS KARABAKH IN PRAGUE

Czech News Agency
August 30, 2004

PRAGUE, Aug 30 (CTK) – Various aspects of the process of a peaceful
solution to the Armenian-Azeri dispute over the province of
Nagorno-Karabakh were discussed by the foreign ministers of Armenia
and Azerbaijan, Vardan Oskanyan and Elmar Mamedyarov, in Prague today.

The talks, which had been mediated by the Organisation for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), were also attended by members
of the OSCE Minsk group from Russia, France and the United States,
the Russian RIA Novosti agency said.

Only snippets of information about the results of the meeting have
been provided. According to available reports, the talks did not have
a precise programme.

The negotiating sides exchanged views on various aspects of the
solutions to the problems in Nagorno-Karabakh, where national disputes
persists.

In the Soviet times, Karabakh, a territory populated by Christian
ethnic Armenians, was assigned to mainly Muslim, Turkic-speaking
Azerbaijan.

The Prague meeting was the fourth meeting between Oskanyan and
Mamedyarov. The previous talks were held in June, also in Prague.

CTK failed to find out whether the Czech side joined the debate and
how. The Czech Foreign Ministry spokesman had no information about
the meeting.