Armenia ready to free occupied land, Azeri FM says

Baku, May 16, AssA-Irada

President Ilham Aliyev met with his Armenian counterpart Robert
Kocharian on the sidelines of the Council of Europe summit in Warsaw
on Monday.

The meeting, attended by co-chairs of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group,
foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia Elmar Mammadyarov and
Vardan Oskanian, as well as those of Russia and France, started with
presentation of a report on the ‘Prague talks’.

Following the private meeting of the Azeri and Armenian presidents
that lasted over three hours, the two instructed the two countries’
foreign ministers to continue the talks, Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov told journalists.

“Although we reached an agreement on a number of issues, we still
have to determine our positions on some other matters.”

Mammadyarov said Armenia is ready to free occupied Azerbaijani
territories and the two Presidents discussed the timing for their
liberation.

“We are talking about an unconditional withdrawal from the seven
occupied regions. The stage-by-stage alternative is available as
well. Naturally, Armenians cannot withdraw from our land in a day.”

Touching upon the next meeting of the foreign ministers, Mammadyarov
said such private meetings are not important.

“The main thing is to achieve results of such meetings. This implies
ensuring Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.”

With regard to the participation of Russian and French ministers in
the meeting, Mammadyarov said this shows that these countries are
closely following the process of settling the Garabagh conflict.*