Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
June 8 2007

Meeting Between Azerbaijani, Armenian Presidents in Saint-Petersburg
to be Closed

Russia, Saint-Petersburg / Òrend corr R. Aghayev / The meeting
between Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents scheduled to 9 June, at
the Palace of Constantine in Saint-Petersburg will be held beyond
closed doors. The Presidents will speak to press after the meeting,
the representatives of the Press Service of the Armenian President in
Saint-Petersburg reported to journalists on 8 June. Armenian leader,
Robert Kocharyan, will arrive in Saint-Petersburg on 9 June to
participate in the 11th international economic forum.

The meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents, in which
methods for peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be discussed, will be the first this
year. Earlier, Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharyan held talks in
Belarus, Romania, and France. The talks were fruitless.

The representative of the Press Service, who preferred to remain
anonymous, reported that Kocharyan will arrive in Saint-Petersburg in
the morning of 9 June and the meeting with his Azerbaijani
counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, will take place in the second half of the
day. The leaders will discuss the course of the negotiations on the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Presidents are
likely to comment on the summit schedule on 10 June.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus appeared
in 1988 due to the territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan.
Armenia has occupied 20% of Azerbaijani lands, including
Nagorno-Karabakh and seven regions surrounding it. Since 1992 until
today, these territories have been under the occupation of Armenian
forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire agreement
which put an end to the active hostilities. The Co-Chairmen of the
OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and US) are still holding peaceful
negotiations.

On 4-5 June the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Miguel Angel
Moratinos, visited Baku and Yerevan in the interest of a peaceful
settlement of the conflict. Co-Chairmen of the Minsk Group visited
the region twice within the last fifteen days.