AZERBAIJANI, ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS TO MEET IN EARLY 2009

Trend
Dec 12 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 12/ Trend News, I. Alizade/ Presidents of
Azerbaijan and Armenia will meet in early 2009.

The next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian President Ilham Aliyev
and Serzh Sarkisyan on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
will take place at early 2009, Novruz Mammadov, chief of International
Relations Department of Azerbaijan’s Presidential Administration, said
to reporters. The date and venue of the meeting will be negotiated.

The next meeting of the two Presidents was negotiated at the meeting
of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers within the OSCE Foreign
Ministers’ meeting in Helsinki held on Dec. 4-5.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group (Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful
negotiations.

Last time Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia met in Moscow on
Nov. 2. with the mediation of Russian President.