Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
June 2 2006

Garabagh mediators due Tuesday

Baku, May 22, AssA-Irada

The OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan
Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict will arrive in Baku on Tuesday
evening.
The Minsk Group co-chairs Steven Mann of the United States, Yuri
Merzlyakov of Russia and Bernard Fassier of France are to hold
meetings in the Azeri capital on Wednesday and leave for Yerevan on
the next day, the Foreign Ministry told AssA-Irada.
Visiting the region along with the intermediaries will be Russia’s
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigori Karasin, US Assistant Secretary of
State Daniel Fried and French Foreign Ministry political director
Stanislas de Laboulaye.
The Russian mediator Yuri Merzlyakov said the next meeting of the
Azeri and Armenian leaders may be held in Bucharest June 4-6. The
discussions are to take place on the sidelines of a summit on
cooperation and dialogue in the Black Sea region, he said.
The parties failed to agree upon the issues of principle during the
latest talks held by the two presidents in Rambouillet, France in
February, which was followed by Azerbaijan’s threats to resort to
military action.*