ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
November 22, 2006 Wednesday

Aliyev ready to meet Kocharyan in Minsk over Karabakh

Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev has agreed to meet his Armenian
counterpart Robert Kocharyan for searching for ways to settle the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, an Azerbaijani official told Itar-Tass on
Wednesday evening.

Earlier in the day, Armenia consented to hold a meeting between the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan as part of the CIS summit to
take place in Minsk on November 28, said Yuri Merzlyakov, Russian
co-chairman of the Minsk Group for Nagorno-Karabakh.

The meeting of the presidents’ mediators yielded results, the Russian
ambassador said on Wednesday before his departure to Baku.

In 2006 this will be the third meeting between the presidents of
Azerbaijan and Armenia. The previous talks took place in France and
Romania.

“It is necessary to receive Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev’s
approval” although earlier the Azerbaijani foreign minister “made a
corresponding statement to this effect”, the Russian ambassador
said.

The Russian co-chairman said U.S. ambassador Matthew Bryza’s absence
is conditioned by the fact that the co-chairmen “agreed to divide
their obligations. These days the American colleague is to meet
Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arkady Gukasyan, who is currently in the
United States.”

Merzlyakov believes, “In general, the year is rather optimistic for
us. If we manage to do this, we have good prospects in 2007.”

French co-chairman Bernard Fassier said he is hopeful that the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan “will succeed in bringing
closer their positions on certain difficult issues.”

Recently military rhetoric has become “more subdued” and it has not
prevented the 2006 key task – to organise a meeting between the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. “Military rhetoric impedes the
negotiating process on the Karabakh settlement whether such
statements are made on the eve of important meetings,” the Russian
co-chairman stressed.

“The co-chairman have a common position – the war is not a real
possibility to solve the conflict,” Fassier added.