MEDIATORS PRESS FOR ANOTHER ARMENIAN-AZERI SUMMIT ON KARABAKH
By Armen Dulian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 13 2006
The OSCE Minsk Group is trying to arrange another meeting of the
Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in a last-ditch attempt to resolve
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict this year, its French co-chair Bernard
Fassier said on Thursday.
“It will be good if that meeting takes place in June or, if that is
not possible, in July,” he told a news conference after holding talks
with Armenian leaders in Yerevan.
Fassier, who held similar talks in Baku earlier this week, said
Presidents Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliev would most likely meet
on the sidelines of a high-level international forum. The French,
Russian and U.S. mediators are already looking for opportunities to
again bring the two leaders face to face.
The most recent Armenian-Azerbaijani summit, held at the French chateau
of Rambouillet on February 10-11, failed to live up to unusually
high expectations fuelled by the mediators’ upbeat statements. Many
had hoped that Aliev and Kocharian will reach a framework agreement
on Karabakh.
According to Fassier, the Minsk Group co-chairs still hope to build on
major progress in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks that was apparently
made last year. He pointed to the ongoing flurry of diplomatic activity
involving the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers as well as
the envoys representing Moscow, Paris and Washington.
Fassier’s U.S. colleague, Steven Mann, is due in Baku and Yerevan
later this month. The co-chairs plan to meet in Moscow early next
month to discuss details of the possible fresh talks between Aliev
and Kocharian, the French diplomat said.