INTERNATIONAL MEDIATORS DISCUSS KARABAKH SETTLEMENT IN AZERI CAPITAL

ITV, Baku,
18 Sep 07

[Presenter] The co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group, who are visiting
Baku, held a meeting at the Foreign Ministry today. The co-chairmen,
who arrived on a special plane from Yerevan to Baku this morning,
made a statement for journalists at Heydar Aliyev international
airport and said that the talks held in Xankandi [Stepanakert] and
Yerevan were important.

The co-chairmen also commented on statements made in Yerevan regarding
the involvement of the Armenian community of Nagornyy Karabakh in
the negotiations.

[Bernard Fassier, French co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, in
Russian with superimposed translation into Azeri] We have reached
a very important stage in the negotiations. We will soon be working
under new conditions – election campaigns that are to be started in
the countries. The Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagornyy
Karabakh were once involved in the negotiations as part of the
delegations. But after Robert Kocharyan [who is native of Nagornyy
Karabakh] became president, we decided that he would be representing
both Armenia and the Armenian community of Nagornyy Karabakh in the
negotiations. Sooner or later there will be a need for the involvement
of the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagornyy Karabakh. We
are keeping in contact with the leaders of both communities, [Bako]
Sahakyan and [Nizami] Bahmanov. Although they do not participate in
talks, they are being kept abreast of the course of the negotiations.

[Matthew Bryza, US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, in Russian
with superimposed translation into Azeri] Before arriving in Baku,
we had visited Yerevan and Xankandi. We held important meetings there.

The goal of our Baku visit is to discuss prospects of the settlement
of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. It would be early to speak about
the next meeting between the [Azerbaijani and Armenian] presidents.

But irrespective of whether this meeting takes place or not, the
negotiations are proceeding in a normal way.

[Presenter] President Ilham Aliyev today met the co-chairmen of the
OSCE Minsk Group for the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh, Matthew Bryza, Bernard Fassier
and Yuriy Merzlyakov. The personal representative of the OSCE
chairman-in-office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, also attended the meeting.

The meeting discussed the current state of the negotiations on the
settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh
and settlement prospects.