SARGSYAN, ALIYEV DISCUSS KARABAKH’S STATUS IN PRAGUE

Interfax
May 12 2009
Russia

Yerevan and Baku have not discussed the possibility of withdrawing
troops from the areas under the control of Nagorno-Karabakh’s defense
army, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan told Interfax.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azeri counterpart Ilham
Aliyev did not discuss the possibility of withdrawing troops from the
territories that are controlled by the defense army of Nagorno-Karabakh
at a meeting in Prague on May 7, Balayan said.

The two countries’ leaders mainly addressed the status of Nagorno-
Karabakh, the spokesman said.

It is natural because Nagorno-Karabakh’s status is a central issue
in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he said.

Nagorno-Karabakh and other territories will be returned to Azerbaijan
in a step-by-step manner and with all refugees, Matthew Bryza, the
U.S. co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, said in an earlier interview
with Russia’s Ekho Moskvy radio.

But it is very difficult to say when it will happen and what situation
will then be observed in Nagorno-Karabakh, Bryza said.