AssA-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 30, 2009 Thursday
FRANCE WELCOMES PLANNED ALIYEV-SARKISIAN MEETING
France has welcomed the prospect of a meeting on the Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh conflict between Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents Ilham
Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian on May 7. The French Foreign Ministry said
in a statement that France, which co-chairs the mediating OSCE Minsk
Group, along with the United States and Russia, continues working hard
to advance a balanced and negotiated settlement to the long-lasting
dispute. This meeting will be a continuation of the meetings held in
St. Petersburg in June 2008, in Moscow in November 2008 and in Zurich
in January 2009, all of which proceeded in a constructive environment,
the statement said. The French ministry expressed hope that these
negotiations would contribute to achieving considerable progress in
the peace process. The conflict between the two South Caucasus
republics reared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia’s territorial
claims. Armenia has been occupying over 20% of Azerbaijan’s
internationally-recognized territory since the early 1990s in defiance
of international law. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but
efforts by international mediators have been fruitless so far.