Nagorno-Karabakh agreement signed
Story from BBC NEWS:
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Published: 2008/11/02 17:13:58 GMT
Armenia and Azerbaijan have signed a joint agreement aimed at resolving
their dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh at talks near
Moscow.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh
Sarkisian, agreed to intensify their efforts to find a political
settlement.
It is the first time in nearly 15 years that such a deal has been
reached.
Sporadic clashes have continued over Nagorno-Karabakh, despite the
signing of a ceasefire agreement in 1994.
Before the truce, several years of fighting had left some 30,000 people
dead and forced more than one million from their homes.
In 2006, an overwhelming majority of Nagorno-Karabakh residents –
mostly ethnic Armenians – voted in favour of declaring a sovereign
state. The declaration has not been internationally recognised.
‘Political settlement’
At Sunday’s talks hosted at Meiendorf Castle, the presidents of
Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed "to speed up further moves in the
negotiating process" over Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev said in a statement.
"They will facilitate the improvement of the situation in the South
Caucasus and establishment of stability and security in the region
through a political settlement of the conflict based on the principles
and norms of international law and the decisions and documents adopted
in this framework," he said.
The two country’s foreign ministers would work with Russia, the US and
France, co-chairmen of the Minsk Group of the Organisation for Security
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is seeking a diplomatic
solution to the conflict, he added.
Mr Sarkisian and Mr Aliyev made no comment.
Hopes of a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia were first raised
in 2001, after a series of meetings between Armenia’s former President,
Robert Kocharyan, and Heydar Aliyev, the late Azeri leader. However,
the talks and subsequent occasional meetings have come to nothing.
In March, the OSCE said it was sending a mission to Nagorno-Karabakh
following serious clashes which reportedly left several soldiers dead
on both sides.
Correspondents say Russia’s brief war with Georgia in August has given
impetus to international efforts to resolve disputes in the Caucasus, a
region where Moscow is seeking greater influence.