BAKU-YEREVAN-MOSCOW VIDEO CONFERENCE HELD

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
June 11 2008

Azerbaijan, Baku, 11 June / Trend News corr. M.Aliyev / The politicians
from Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia discussed the first meeting of
Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, the President Azerbaijan and Armenia
respectively, within the framework of the non-official summit of CIS
countries in St.Petersburg on 6 June.

The participants of Baku-Yerevan-Moscow video conference-the political
scientists Alexander Iskenderyan, Shavarsh Kocharyan, Asim Mollazade,
Fikrat Sadikhov and historian Eldar Ismayilov, came to a common opinion
that the meeting between both countries Presidents’ cannot settle
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, when the two nations are bellicose to
each other.

Asim Mollazade, Chairman of the Democratic Reforms party of Azerbaijan,
stated that the Azerbaijani and Armenian representatives of different
professional groups met earlier but could not reach to a common
solution.

Iskandariyan believes that no promotion will be reached in this
issue until the Azerbaijani and Armenian population will not demand
a peaceful solution of the conflict.

"No concrete temporary framework can be devised to settle the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This issue can become strained under the
foreign pressure at any time," Sadikhov said.

Sadikhov said that the Armenian population has got tired of the current
situation with Nagorno-Karabakh. "This was clearly shown during March
developments and crisis in Armenia," Sadikhov said.

"If both sides will not reach to any compromise then the solution of
this conflict may delay," Iskandariyan 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.