AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA, RUSSIA TO DISCUSS NAGORNY KARABAKH

RIA Novosti
13:35 | 29/ 10/ 2008

MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) – The presidents of Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Russia will meet in Moscow on Sunday to discuss the
Nagorny Karabakh conflict, the Kremlin press service said on Wednesday.

"Under an agreement, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan will meet in the presence of Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on November 2 to discuss a settlement to
the Nagorny Karabakh conflict," the statement reads.

Medvedev announced plans to invite his Azerbaijani and Armenian
counterparts to the negotiating table in Moscow while on a visit to
Yerevan last Tuesday.

He said Georgia’s August attack on South Ossetia had underlined the
need to settle complicated issues only on the basis of international
principles and negotiation.

In his inauguration speech on Friday, Aliyev said he categorically
opposed independence for Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with
a largely Armenian population. The region declared its independence
from Azerbaijan to join Armenia in 1988 and has been a source of
conflict ever since.

Alieyv, who was reelected for the second term on October 15, said
however, that talks could lead to a fair settlement.

Sargsyan said Armenia was ready to continue talks on the basis of
the Madrid principles which allow for the recognition of Nagorny
Karabakh’s independence.

Russia’s Vremya Novostei daily said on Wednesday the meeting involving
the three presidents, which have all been inaugurated this year,
would be particularly interesting.

"The five-day war between Russia and Georgia has moved this conflict
from the frozen-conflict category to the more dangerous category of
conflicts set to ‘defrost’ quickly or even ‘reheat,’" the newspaper
said.