ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI LEADERS BID TO SETTLE CONFLICT
France 24
July 10 2009
The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to meet next
week in a bid to resolve their conflict over the separatist enclave
of Nagorny Karabakh, a Russian mediator said Friday.
"The coming meeting is very important and we hope to take the final
steps toward resolving the conflict," said Yuri Merzlyakov. "Both
(presidents) aim to attain results at this meeting."
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh
Sarkisian will meet July 17 in Moscow, the Russian diplomat said.
Merzlyakov co-heads the Minsk Group, which includes France, Russia
and the United States and is charged with settling the dispute.
Bernard Fassier, the French co-president of the group, also expressed
optimism over the talks on Azerbaijan’s separatist enclave.
"We are expecting a breakthrough in the negotiation process, and I
hope that the presidents are going to agree on the basic principles
of a future accord," he said.
US President Barack Obama and his French and Russian counterparts,
Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev, on Friday called on Armenia
and Azerbaijan to settle the conflict in a statement released on the
sidelines of a G8 summit in Italy.
Nagorny Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians and effectively
controlled by Armenia, declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1991,
sparking conflict.
According to differing estimates, the conflict claimed between 25,000
and 30,000 lives and displaced up to a million people.