YEREVAN CONFIRMS ARMENIAN, AZERI PRESIDENTS WILL MEET SOON

Interfax
Jan 20 2009
Russia

The Armenian and Azeri presidents, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev,
will meet in the near future, the Armenian presidential press service
told Interfax on Tuesday.

"The participants in a meeting between the co-chairmen of the OSCE
Minsk Group for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan reached an agreement on organizing a
meeting between the Armenian and Azeri presidents in the near future,"
the press service said.

Presidential press secretary Samvel Farmanian did not specify when
a meeting between Sargsyan and Aliyev could take place and where.

Yury Merzlyakov, the Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, told
journalists in Azerbaijan on Monday that Baku had given its consent to
such a meeting during the traditional annual economic forum in Davos.

"The main result [of the talks in Baku] is Azerbaijan’s consent to hold
a new meeting between the Azeri and Armenian presidents in the near
future, apparently on the sidelines of the Davos economic forum. When
we are in Yerevan tomorrow, we expect to obtain confirmation from
Armenia," Merzlyakov said at a news briefing in Baku on Monday.

The Armenian presidential press service also said the participants in
the Tuesday meeting also discussed certain aspects of the current stage
in the ongoing negotiations on solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"The co-chairmen informed the president of Armenia about results of
the Baku meetings," it said.