G8 PRESSES ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN FOR NAGORNY KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
RIA Novosti, Russia
June 29 2006
MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) – Foreign ministers from the Group of
Eight industrialized nations called on Armenia and Azerbaijan Thursday
to outline principles for resolving a long-running territorial dispute
this year.
The conflict between the two former Soviet republics over Nagorny
Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population,
first erupted in 1988, when the region claimed independence from
Azerbaijan to join Armenia.
A statement by the G8 ministers following talks Thursday in Moscow
stressed the need to draft the main principles to solve the conflict
peacefully so that agreement could be reached in 2006, and urged
Azerbaijan and Armenia to display political will and reach an agreement
on the issue this year, while preparing their nations for peace and
not for war.
Over 30,000 people were reported dead on both sides between 1988
and 1994, and over 100 others died after a ceasefire was concluded
in 1994, leaving Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenian hands, but tensions
between Azerbaijan and Armenia have persisted.
Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
the world’s largest regional security body, carried out monitoring
of a section of the border between the countries that has been at the
center of recent accusations from both sides of ceasefire violations.