ARMENIA & AZERBAIJAN INCH AHEAD IN KARABAKH TALKS

Reuters
May 7 2009

PRAGUE, May 7 (Reuters) – Armenia and Azerbaijan inched ahead in
talks over settling their dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave
on Thursday, mediators said.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan held talks with his Azeri
counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Prague, another in a series of meetings
aimed to resolve the conflict over the Armenian-controlled enclave
in Azerbaijan.

"They were able… to reduce their differences on basic principles
and generally agree on the basic ideas they came here to discuss,"
said U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Matthew Bryza, a co-chairman of
the Minsk Group of countries mediating the talks.

"For the first time the presidents agreed on basic ideas surrounding
these (long discussed) points," he told reporters.

He gave no details on the substance of the talks.

"We are preparing a breakthrough, we are in a position to identify
what could be the break, but we are not yet through," added French
envoy Bernard Fassier, but said there was a still a lot of work ahead.

Representatives of the two Caucasian countries did not attend the
news conference.

The envoys said talks would continue on a lower level in the coming
weeks and the two presidents may meet again in St. Petersburg in
early June.

Ethnic Armenian separatists, backed by Armenia, fought a war in the
1990s to throw off Azerbaijan’s control of the mountain enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh, the bloodiest conflict in ex-Soviet countries.

An estimated 30,000 people were killed, and about 140,000 now live
in the enclave. A fragile ceasefire is in force but a peace accord
has never been signed.

The talks took place on the sidelines of a European Union summit
launching a cooperation programme for six former Soviet countries
including the Caucasian states.

Diplomatic activity has increased since last year’s war in neighbouring
Georgia, when Russia invaded the pro-Russian region of South Ossetia
after Georgian troops stormed in.

However, there is uncertainty over how a thaw in relations between
Armenia and Azerbaijani ally Turkey might affect efforts to resolve
the conflict.

Oil-producing Azerbaijan has reacted angrily to plans by Turkey and
Armenia to establish diplomatic relations and open their border, which
Turkey closed in 1993 in solidarity with fellow Muslim Azerbaijan
during the Nagorno-Karabakh war. (Reporting by Jan Korselt, writing
by Jan Lopatka)

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress