Foreign ministers’ meeting `beneficial’, says Deputy FM
Baku, June 20, AssA-Irada
The talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers Elmar
Mammadyarov and Vardan Oskanian held in Paris on Friday were
`comprehensive, serious and beneficial’, Azeri officials have said.
The parties discussed several details – covering areas from freeing
the occupied territories to political issues.
`Although these details were discussed in separate, they are closely
inter-related. The sides therefore intend to coordinate all the
elements jointly and solve these issues according to the
initially-outlined schedule’, said Araz Azimov, Deputy Foreign
Minister and the President’s envoy on the Upper Garabagh conflict.
`The return of occupied territories is a pivotal issue for Azerbaijan.
This however, does not mean settling the conflict yet, as a number of
other problems will remain to be resolved’, he told journalists on
Monday.
Azimov noted that to achieve a conflict resolution, the contempt
between the two nations should be done away with, while Azerbaijan and
Armenia should start cooperating.
Among other key issues discussed in Paris was the co-existence of the
Azerbaijani and Armenian communities in Upper Garabagh. The issue of
granting Garabagh the status of self-administration is currently not
being discussed, he said.
`The status of the region should be determined with the involvementof
all people living here. For this to be possible, all refugees must
return home.’
Armenian Minister Oskanian told Radio Liberty prior to the Paris
meeting that no major results should be expected from the
discussions. He said the talks are aimed at shaping up and reflecting
on paper the agreements reached previously by the two countries’
Presidents in Warsaw.*