CO-CHAIRS: CONSTRUCTIVE SPIRIT OF AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS ALLOWED THEM TO SIGN THE FIRST EVER DECLARATION

Azeri Press Agency
Nov 7 2008
Azerbaijan

Baku. Viktoriya Dementyeva – APA. Last weekend’s Moscow meeting between
the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan gave the Co-Chairs of
the OSCE Minsk Group, which deals with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
reason for cautious optimism, the Co-Chairs told journalists today,
APA reports.

Ambassador Yuri Merzlyakov of the Russian Federation, Ambassador
Bernard Fassier of France and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Matthew Bryza of the United States, along with Ambassador Andrzej
Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office
on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, talked to journalists after their
address to the OSCE Permanent Council.

"There are personal factors and objective factors in the region that
give us Co-Chairs a reason for some cautious optimism or realistic
optimism," said Bryza.

"Among the personal factors, the 2 November Moscow meeting between
Presidents Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Sarkisyan of Armenia confirmed
the constructive spirit of their first St Petersburg meeting last
June. This constructive spirit allowed them to sign the first ever
declaration on the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process," Fassier said. The
discussions between Ankara and Yerevan were also among the positive
factors. Among the objective factors, obviously, some elements changed
since the crisis in Georgia.

The Co-Chairs said that Armenia felt the fragile character of
their lines of communication for imports and exports through
Georgia. Azerbaijan felt deeply the vulnerability of the so-called
energy corridor through Georgia.

The Minsk Group Co-Chairs plan to visit the region in the weeks prior
to the OSCE Ministerial Council, scheduled in Helsinki on 4 and 5
December, to work with the parties to build on the recently-established
positive momentum and to try to find a mutually acceptable solution
to the last remaining differences between them.