AZERI PRESIDENT AGREES TO MEET WITH ARMENIAN COUNTERPART IN DAVOS

Interfax
Jan 19 2009
Russia

Baku has agreed to the meeting between Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in terms of the Davos forum,
Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov said in
Baku before leaving for Yerevan.

"The main result [of the talks in Baku] is the Azeri agreement to
shortly hold a meeting between the Azeri and Armenian presidents
probably on the sidelines of the Davos economic forum," Merzlyakov
told a briefing in Baku.

"Tomorrow, in Yerevan, we hope to get confirmation from the Armenian
side," he said.

According to Merzlyakov, the co-chairmen are continuing to discuss
with the Azeris and the Armenians the basic principles of the Nagorno-
Karabakh settlement. "It is good that this issue has remained on
the agenda, and it is obvious that in case the meeting between the
presidents takes place it will be dedicated to further elaboration of
some principles, maybe the two presidents will modify the formulations
in the agreements between them," he said.

The U.S. Co-Chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza said he
saw that the Azeri president had a great wish to promote the process,
and he [Bryza] hoped he would have similar feelings after meeting
with the Armenian president.

It takes time to build up confidence between the presidents of Armenia
and Azerbaijan, he said. He said he was calling on the public of both
countries to trust that that their leaders were holding talks in the
interests of their nations and to trust OSCE activity.

The French Co-Chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Facier
said a military way of solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was
inadmissible. "This conflict has no military solution. War does not
exist as a way of solving this conflict. War is suicide," he said.