Agence France Presse — English
April 13, 2006 Thursday 10:39 PM GMT

Armenian, Azerbaijani leaders could meet again on Karabakh: French
negotiator

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan may meet again in the coming
months to resume talks over the contested Nagorno Karabakh region, a
French mediator in the conflict said here Thursday, expressing the
hope that negotiations between the leaders could take place in June.

“We are prepared to present the presidents with new ideas to renew
and develop the principles on which the parties are already working,”
Bernard Fassier, who co-chairs the Minsk group of Russian, French and
American mediators on Karabakh, told reporters.

The negotiation process continues, despite failed talks between
Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani leader Ilham
Aliyev at the Rambouillet castle near Paris last February, Fassier
said.

He said the Minsk Group’s co-chairmen would meet in Moscow in May,
before visiting the Caucasus region.

The Armenian-majority enclave of Nagorno Karabakh seceded from
Azerbaijan in the late 1980s, sparking a six-year conflict between
Armenia ad Azerbaijan that claimed that 25,000 lives and displaced
hundreds of thousands of people.

Despite a 1994 ceasefire, tensions remain high and the mountainous
region, surrounded by Azerbaijani territory, is separated by one of
the world’s most militarized zones.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress