Agence France Presse — English
August 23, 2005 Tuesday 1:50 PM GMT

Diplomatic efforts over Karabakh ahead of CIS summit

MOSCOW

Senior diplomats from Azerbaijan and Armenia will hold discussions
Wednesday in Moscow on the contested Nagorno Karabakh region in
preparation for the meeting of the countries’ presidents later this
week, said the Azerbijani foreign minister, Elmar Mamediarov,
Tuesday.

The diplomatic mission will come two days ahead of a summit of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) — which groups former
Soviet republics — planned for Friday in Kazan, capital of the
southern Russian republic of Tatarstan.

“We are going to discuss the nature of the meeting between the two
presidents,” said Mamediarov, who, along with his Armenian
counterpart, Varden Oskanian, is also due to meet with Russian
diplomatic head Sergey Lavrov in Moscow Wednesday.

Asked whether he believed any progress would be made on the Karabakh
dispute, Mamediarov said he did not want to commit himself to
anything. “If the Armenians are prepared to accept our proposals,
there will be a breakthrough,” he said, before praising the efforts
of mediators Russia, France and the United States.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war over the mainly ethnic-Armenian
enclave in the early 1990s, which Armenia eventually won, wresting
control of the region from Azerbaijan.

But Nagorno Karabakh’s status has never been settled and Azerbaijan,
encouraged by an international community which still recognises the
enclave as part of President Ilham Aliyev’s country, wants to take
back control.