ARMENIAN AND AZERI FOREIGN MINISTERS TO MEET SEPARATELY WITH MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRMEN

ARMENPRESS
May 09 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 9, ARMENPRESS: Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian
said today he and his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov will
hold separate talks with the Minsk Group co-chairs in Strasbourg on
May 11. Oskanian told reporters in Yerevan that he will discuss with
the cochairmen from Russia, France and the USA the details of his
next meeting with Mamedyarov.

Oskanian denounced the Azerbaijani side for disclosing the details
of negotiations over the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh, saying
it has a negative effect on the process, but added that the process
will not stop.

Oskanian meant the remarks by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev,
who claimed on May 3 that ‘Armenia had agreed to liberate all seven
Azerbaijani districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh as part of a peace
accord discussed presently by the conflicting parties."

Oskanian said today that Armenia refrains from disclosing the details
of the talks with Baku and is being guided by a document on the basic
principles of the conflict resolution which is on the table.

In a related news Azerbaijani deputy foreign minister Araz Azimov
was quoted by Azeri media as saying that ‘Armenia and Azerbaijan
are as close to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as never
before." Araz Azimov made the statement while speaking at the Carnegie
Center in Moscow.

Meantime the OSCE Minsk group cochairmen are meeting tomorrow in
Madrid to discuss chances of organizing a fresh meeting of Armenian
and Azeri presidents on June 10 in the Russian Saint Petersburg.