NO BREAKTHROUGH IN LATEST ROUND OF KARABAKH TALKS – AZERI FOREIGN MINISTRY

Turan news agency
Aug 4 2008
Azerbaijan

No breakthrough was made at the latest meeting of the Azerbaijani
and Armenian foreign ministers in Moscow on 1 August, a spokesman
for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has said.

"If there had been any progress, we would have spoken about a new
situation in the talks. At present, this is not the case," Xazar
Ibrahim was quoted by Turan news agency as saying on 4 August.

He said that Azerbaijan’s position on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict
had remained unchanged. It maintains that Armenian troops should pull
out of Nagornyy Karabakh and the surrounding districts of Azerbaijan
and the IDPs should return home, the spokesman said.

Speaking about the status of Karabakh, Ibrahim said that it would
be determined after relations between the two communities were
improved. Asked to comment on the statement by the US co-chairman
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza, that the status of Nagornyy
Karabakh should be determined by voting either through a plebiscite or
a referendum of the people in that region, Ibrahim said that Bryza’s
statements "are never based on reality".