Russia & CIS Presidential Bulletin
October 26, 2007
ALIYEV MULLS KARABAKH SETTLEMENT WITH MINSK GROUP COCHAIRMEN
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received co-chairmen of the OSCE
Minsk group in Baku on Friday, Interfax was told by the presidential
administration.
They discussed matters related to the talks on the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict.
Meanwhile, U.S. co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk group Matthew Bryza has
not ruled out the possibility of a gentlemen’s agreement between Baku
and Yerevan on the Nagorno Karabakh settlement principles.
In his opinion, such an agreement may be signed before the
presidential elections, Bryza told the press in Baku on Friday.
Such an agreement will bind the sides to stick to the settlement
principles after the elections in Armenia, he said.
Bryza said that at the meeting with co-chairmen in Yerevan, Armenian
President Robert Kocharian did not rule out the possibility of such a
gentlemen’s agreement before elections.
Baku lost control over Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent seven districts
in a bloody Armenian-Azeri conflict in the early 1990s. The problem
is being settled with international mediation, with the mediation of
the OSCE Minsk group representing the United States, Russia and
France.