AZERBAIJAN NOT TO ATTEND AT CIS COUNTRIES’ EDUCATION MINISTERS MEETING

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 25 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. S.Agayeva / Azerbaijan does not attend
at the 20th meeting of the Council on cooperation in education sphere
by the CIS member-countries started in Yerevan on 25 October, the
Azerbaijani Education Minister said.

"Given the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan we will not take
part in the meeting is being held in Armenia," the Ministry reported.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful
negotiations.

The 13th conference of Education Ministers of the CIS member-countries
is also being held in Yerevan.