Interfax, Russia
Nov 15 2008

Minsk Group Leaders Arrive in N.-Karabakh
Saturday, November 15, 2008 11:11 PM

(Source: Daily News Bulletin; Moscow – English)YEREVAN. Nov 15
(Interfax) – The U.S., Russian and French co- chairmen of the Minsk
Group, an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe body
mediating in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, have arrived in the
disputed enclave, where they are to meet with the region’s leader.
The co-chairmen, Matthew Bryza of the United States, Yury Merzlyakov
of Russia and Bernard Facier of France, will meet with Beko Sahakian,
president of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, an
Armenian-speaking enclave in Azerbaijan and the source of a two-decade
conflict between that country and Armenia.

Bryza, Merzlyakov and Facier, who arrived in Armenia from Baku on
Friday, are expected to meet with journalists on Monday.

In a radio program earlier on Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov expressed optimism about chances for the settlement of
the conflict.

The Azeri and Armenian presidents, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, at
a meeting in Moscow, "unequivocally reaffirmed their readiness and
intentions to continue having meetings at the highest level, and they
did so for the first time in 14 years in the form of a document to
which they put their signatures," Lavrov told Moscow radio station
Ekho Moskvy.

This, Lavrov, said, was the first time the two countries made such a
pledge since "the end of the hot phase of the conflict."

"Secondly, the Moscow declaration contains concrete instructions by
President Aliyev and President Sargsyan for their foreign ministers to
intensify the work of seeking compromises," the Russian minister said.

"Thirdly, it was the first time that the Armenian and Azeri
leaderships recorded the actual fact of the existence of the Madrid
document, which the co-chairmen handed to the [conflict] parties a
year ago," he said.

Lavrov said the fact that "the Armenian and Azeri sides have recorded
at presidential level the existence of this document and their
readiness to take it into account in their work [is] a great step
forward."

"Russia, the U.S. and France have no tactical disagreements on this
conflict, they are following the same route and trying to stimulate
the parties to reach agreement. The Moscow declaration stresses the
sustained significance of this mechanism more than once," Lavrov said.