CZECH, AZERI FOREIGN MINISTERS DISCUSS NAGORNO-KARABAKH IN PRAGUE

CTK National News Wire
December 10, 2008 Wednesday 6:03 PM (Central European Time)
Czech Rep

Prague, Dec 10 (CTK) – The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed
landlocked region in the Caucasus, was one of the topics Czech
Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and his Azeri counterpart
Elmar Mammadyarov discussed in Prague today in connection with the
forthcoming Czech EU presidency.

Schwarzenberg told journalists after the meeting that Czech diplomacy
could help resolve the conflict if it were asked and if it received
the necessary mandate.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been controlled by Armenian separatists since
the beginning of the 1990s after an armed conflict that claimed
30,000 lives.

In 1994, representatives of the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan
agreed on the cease-fire. Since then they have been holding peace
talks on resolving the conflict.

However, armed conflicts have been quite frequent during this period.

Schwarzenberg said it was necessary for both countries to be interested
in resolving the problem.

"It is high time to settled the conflict," Mammadyarov said.

The Czech Republic will take over the six-month EU rotating presidency
on January 1, 2009.

One of Czech priorities is orientation towards countries eastwards
of the EU. According to the Czech Foreign Ministry, Azerbaijan is
one of these countries.