AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTER TO MEET WITH HIS NEWLY-APPOINTED ARMENIAN COUNTERPART
Trend News Agency
April 23 2008
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan, Baku, 23 April / corr. TrendNews K. Ramazanova/ The foreign
ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward
Nalbandyan, will meet in early May in Strasbourg, Bernard Fassier,
the French co-chairman of OSCE Minsk Group said to TrendNews on a
telephone from Vienna on 23 April.
The meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign minister may be
held within the special meeting of Committee of Ministers of Council
of Europe to be held on 7 May. Slovenia will hand over chairmanship
to Sweden within the meeting.
It is the first meeting of Azerbaijani foreign minister with new
foreign minister of Armenia. The former Armenian ambassador Nalbandyan
was appointed foreign minister after the change of government in
Armenia as a result of presidential elections in the country. He
replaced Vardan Oskanyan.
"The further steps of mediators depends on the meeting of ministers,"
Fassier said.
It is possible that mediators will visit Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict
region and will discuss the ways of settlement of conflict with
Azerbaijani and Armenian government, he said.
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 French co-chairman discussed various ways of settlement of the
conflict with Armenian foreign minister a day ago in Paris, during
the Armenian foreign minister’s visit to France. The current stage of
negotiations on settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was discussed
during the meeting.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
