PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung), Austria
May 26 2007

Azerbaijani, Armenian presidents agree to meet on sidelines of
conference in Russia

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) _ Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev has agreed
to meet with his Armenian counterpart in Russia next month, key
international mediators said Friday, in a renewed push to resolve the
status of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The territory is inside Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic
Armenian forces since a 1994
cease-fire ended a six-year conflict that killed some 30,000 people
and drove more than 1 million from their homes.
Tensions remain high between the two nations despite more than a
decade of coaxing from international mediators led by the United
States, Russia and France to resolve the region’s status.
French diplomat Bernard Fassier said Aliev had agreed to meet with
Armenian President Robert Kocharian on June 9 in St. Petersburg, on
the sidelines of a conference of presidents from former Soviet
republics.
On Thursday, speaking in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, Russian
diplomat Yuri Merzlyakov said Kocharian had also given his agreement
to the meeting.
Merzlyakov said he hoped the two presidents would be able to reach
agreement over what appeared to be one of the key sticking points _
control over a swath of land called the Lachin corridor that links
Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. Currently, that swath is controlled by
ethnic Armenian forces.
The two presidents have met several times in recent years in an
attempt to reach a resolution.
The lack of agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh’s final status has tied up
development through the strategic South Caucasus region.
___
Associated Press Writer Avet Demourian in Armenia contributed to this
report.