ITAR-TASS news agency
24 Aug 05

Moscow, 24 August: Moscow, Baku and Yerevan count on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani summit to be a success. The two Caucasus
republics’ foreign ministers held consultations in Moscow with
Russia’s participation today on the eve of the talks between the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Ilham Aliyev and Robert
Kocharyan are to meet in Kazan on 27 August during a CIS summit.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed out Moscow’s intention
to “create all conditions to achieve progress in settling the Nagornyy
Karabakh problem”.

He stressed that he “is unable to comment on the process of
negotiations led by the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group”. “No
doubt they have their ideas,” the minister said.

“The settlement should make each of the involved parties feel that
they have greater security and that the balance of forces which has
historically evolved in the region is not upset,” the Russian
co-chairman of the Minsk Group, Yuriy Merzlyakov, has said. According
to him, “if a mutually acceptable accord is reached, we can give it
our guarantees”.

“There are hopes that we can find common denominators,” the Armenian
foreign minister, Vardan Oskanyan, believes. “These can bring about
peace and stability to the Southern Caucasus.”

The main theme for the consultations in Moscow is “to prepare the
meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijanian presidents in Kazan on 27
August”. “We have discussed the details of the forthcoming talks,” he
said.

According to him, “the priority is given to the self-determination of
Nagornyy Karabakh which should manifest itself in the people’s right
to be free to shape their future”. “Other issues – eliminating the
consequences of the conflict, resolving territorial problems,
returning the refugees – will ensue because of this priority,”
Oskanyan believes.

Similar to his Armenian colleague, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov takes a positive view of the consultations in Moscow. On
the other hand, he believes that “it is too early to say that there is
any breakthrough in settling the conflict in Nagornyy Karabakh”. He
stressed that “active work is needed” to achieve a settlement. “Now
there is a window of opportunity there to reach a common denominator
on this problem,” the Azeri minister believes. [Passage omitted: the
Karabakh talks background]