Day.az, Azerbaijan
Jan 14 2008

Azeri leader, OSCE mediators discuss Karabakh

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has received the US, French and
Russian co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the personal envoy of
the OSCE chairman-in-office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Baku-based Day.az
website reported on 14 January.

The current state of the talks to resolve the Karabakh conflict was
discussed at the meeting, the website said.

Day.az said that the "OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs expect that a verbal
agreement between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan be concluded before the presidential
election in Armenia [on 19 February 2008]".

On 14 January 2008, APA news agency reported the meeting between the
co-chairs and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov to learn
his attitude to proposals made by the mediators to the conflicting
sides at the foreign ministers’ meeting in Madrid on 29 November
2007.

The mediators will leave Baku for Yerevan and Xankandi (Stepanakert),
the administrative centre of breakaway Karabakh, APA said.

On 3 December 2007, Day.az quoted the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry as
saying that the principles presented in Madrid included a withdrawal
of Armenian troops from the Azerbaijani territories surrounding
Nagornyy Karabakh, return of refugees to their homes and restoration
of communications between the conflicting sides, among the other
issues.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress