Azerbaijan faults Armenia for slow progress on Nagorny Karabakh
15:38 | 09/ 05/ 2009
BAKU, May 9 (RIA Novosti) – Azerbaijan on Saturday blamed Armenia for
the lack of significant progress towards a settlement of the Nagorny
Karabakh conflict during a recent summit in the Czech Republic.
"I can not say that we have achieved any significant progress. Complex
issues were discussed at the meeting in Prague. Unfortunately, the
Armenian side once again did not show a constructive approach,"
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan met in Prague on Thursday, along with the co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group, which mediates a peaceful resolution to the conflict
between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorny Karabakh.
Relations have been tense for more than two decades between Armenia and
Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely
Armenian population. The region declared its independence in a 1991
after a referendum boycotted by local Azerbaijanis. The ensuing
conflict claimed some 35,000 lives before a ceasefire was signed in
1994. The area technically remains part of Azerbaijan, but has its own
de facto government.
"Azerbaijan wants Armenian troops to withdraw from the occupied
territories as soon as possible," Mammadyarov said.
He also said that the next meeting between the Azeri and Armenian
leaders was planned to be held during an international economic forum
in St. Petersburg in June.