ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN TO CONTINUE NAGORNY KARABAKH TALKS

RIA Novosti
20:54 | 28/ 01/ 2009

YEREVAN, January 28 (RIA Novosti) – The presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan agreed in Zurich on Wednesday to continue talks on the
Nagorny Karabakh frozen conflict, a spokesman for the Armenian
president said.

Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian
population, declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1983. The
ensuing Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict claimed some 35,000 lives. A
ceasefire was signed in 1994. The area technically remains part of
Azerbaijan, but has its own de facto government.

The Armenian leader Serzh Sarkisyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart
Ilham Aliyev, "asked the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group to
continue their efforts to reach common ground in the conflict," the
spokesman said. "They also agreed on a visit by the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairmen to the region in the near future."

The source added that the talks were "constructive and positive."

The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Edvard Nalbandyan and
Elmar Mammedyarov, respectively, as well as the co-chairmen of the
Minsk Group, Yury Merzlyakov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France,
and Matthew Bryza of the U.S. also took part in the talks.

The two presidents also held one-on-one talks later in the day, which
lasted about an hour, and talks then continued in the extended format.

The previous meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents
was held in November 2008 in Moscow. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
hosted the talks, at which the leaders agreed to intensify efforts
to settle the conflict.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk
Group was created in 1992 to encourage a peaceful resolution to the
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorny Karabakh.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress