AZERBAIJANI LEADER INDICATES WILLINGNESS TO MEET WITH ARMENIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT

ARMENPRESS
March 14, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS: Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev
indicated today he was ready to meet with Armenian president-elect,
prime minister Serzh Sarkisian on the sidelines of a NATO summit,
scheduled for April 2-4 in Bucharest, Romania.

Novruz Mamedov, chief of international affairs division in Aliyev’s
staff, told Trend news agency that Aliyev would meet with Sarkisian
"If such a proposal comes from the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen."

He said if Aliyev decides to participate in the summit he may consider
meeting with Armenian counterpart.

Armenia was the first on Thursday to say its newly elected president
was ready to meet his Azeri counterpart to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian said Russia, the United
States and France — who are mediators in the conflict – were pushing
for a meeting between president-elect Serzh Sarkisian and Azeri leader
Ilham Aliyev.

"If there is such a proposal and if the Azeri side agrees to this,
then the newly elected president is ready to participate in this
meeting," Oskanian told reporters at a news briefing in Yerevan.