THE OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS MET WITH THE NKR PRESIDENT IN STEPANAKERT

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14-07-2005

On July 13, President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Arkady
Ghoukassian met with Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno
Karabakh Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), Steven Mann (USA) and Bernar Fasie
(France), who had arrived in Stepanakert the same day.

According to the information of the NKR President’s press-service, the
Co-Chairs informed the NKR President of the details of the meetings
betweenthe Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the two countries, presented the
approaches of the countries-mediators regarding the prospects of
achieving tangible progress in the peaceful settlement process. They
re-affirmed their opinion that a new possibility in the process of the
Nagorno Karabakh problem settlement had appeared, noting that it was
not any new proposals presented to the parties of the conflict.

In his turn, President Arkady Ghoukassian noted that in spite of the
fact that it was still soon to speak of any considerable mutual
understanding between the parties to the conflict on the issues
included in the agenda of the settlement process, the expectation of
progress was, however, great. He expressed hope that the current visit
of the Co-Chairs to the region would be productive and would make the
peaceful and comprehensive settlement of the Karabakh conflict
closer. The Co-Chairs expressed their gratitude to the NKR President
for the constructive talk and the readiness of the Karabakh party to
continue the search of a mutually acceptable model of settlement.

NKR Minister of Foreign Affairs Arman Melikian took part in the
meeting.