Agence France Presse — English
April 18, 2009 Saturday 8:54 AM GMT

Armenian president to visit Russia amid peace drive

MOSCOW, April 18 2009

The Armenian president is to visit Moscow next week, the Kremlin
announced Saturday, amid intensifying Russian efforts to solve his
Caucasus state’s longstanding conflict with Azerbaijan.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian would visit Moscow on Thursday at
the invitation of his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin
said in a statement, without giving further details.

The announcement comes amid reports the Kremlin is pushing Sarkisian
to meet his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev in June for a summit aimed
at moving to formally end the conflict over the enclave of Nagorny
Karabakh.

Aliyev had held talks with Medvedev in Moscow on Friday, declaring
that the positions of the two sides on the conflict had become closer.

Last November, Russia hosted rare peace talks between Armenia and
Azerbaijan and the Kommersant daily reported that Russia had convinced
the two presidents to take part in another summit in Saint Petersburg
in June.

"Russia is striving to cement its position as the main mediator
between Yerevan and Baku," Kommersant wrote on Saturday.

Analysts say Moscow is seeking to increase its influence in the
Caucasus region at a time of change, amid political volatility in
Georgia and moves by Armenia and neighbouring Turkey to end decades of
enmity.

Nagorny Karabakh, an enclave of Azerbaijan with a largely ethnic
Armenian population, broke free of Baku’s control in the early 1990s
in a war that killed nearly 30,000 people and forced two million to
flee their homes.

Shootings between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in the region remain
common despite a 1994 ceasefire.