Interfax, Russia
May 29 2009

Karabakh mediators expect progress from next Aliyev-Sargsyan meeting

BAKU May 29

The co-chairmen of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe) Minsk Group hope significant progress will be reached in
the Karabakh settlement process at the upcoming talks between Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in
St. Petersburg on June 4.

"The goal of our visit is to continue preparations for the presidents’
meeting in St. Petersburg on June 4," French co-chairman Bernard
Fassier told journalists in Baku. Fassier said he was attaching
particular importance to the St. Petersburg meeting.

"One should understand that the St. Petersburg meeting will be this
year’s fifth, which already means something. There is some
progress. Not everything is being solved in one meeting," the diplomat
said.

The two countries’ leaders acted constructively, said U.S. co-
chairman Matthew Bryza, commenting on the recent meeting between the
Azeri and Armenian presidents in Prague.

The presidents took the negotiations very seriously, he said.

From the diplomatic point of view, the Azeri president is waging a
cultural war, and we hope to see a turning point in St. Petersburg,
Bryza said. As for Novruz Mamedov, head of foreign relations in the
Azeri presidential administration, who said that no progress was
reached in Prague, this person did not attend the Prague meeting, plus
he is allowed to have his own opinion, Bryza said.