CO-CHAIRS HOPE TO ACHIEVE PROGRESS IN TALKS ON RESOLUTION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT: RUSSIAN CO-CHAIR

Today.Az
01 July 2009 [17:05] – Today.Az

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs will arrive in the region next week to meet
with Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, Russian Co-Chair of
the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov told Trend News over telephone
from Moscow.

"We will come to the region to prepare meeting between Armenian and
Azerbaijani presidents to be held in Moscow in mid-July," he said.

The last meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenia Presidents Ilham
Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan took place in St. Petersburg on June 4. This
was fifth meeting on resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The previous meeting was held in Prague on June 7. The first meeting
was held in St. Petersburg in June 2008 and second meeting in Moscow
in late November 2008 and third was held in Zurich on Jan. 28, 2009.

Merzlyakov said OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are making every effort so
that this meeting will be held in a constructive atmosphere. ‘We hope
to achieve progress in talks on resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict," he said. The conflict between the two South Caucasus
countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims
against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent
of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
7 surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire
agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia,
France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.