Minsk Group countries to submit new proposals on Nagorny Karabakh

Minsk Group countries to submit new proposals on Nagorny Karabakh

RIA Novosti
July 10, 2009 Friday 4:36 PM GMT+3

Russia, the U.S., and France said on Friday they would submit a
revised set of proposals on the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh to
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"We urge the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the few
differences remaining between them and finalize their agreement,"
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, U.S. President Barack Obama, and
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a joint statement.

The three countries are co-chairs of the Minsk Group, which mediates
the territorial dispute between Baku and Yerevan.

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan are expected to meet in
Russia on July 17.

Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian
population, has been a source of conflict between the former Soviet
republics since the late 1980s. The province has its own de facto
government.

A war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the mountainous enclave in
1988-1994 left an estimated 35,000 people dead. Sporadic violence on
the border has continued ever since. Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met in Prague last month
to discuss the conflict, on the sidelines of the EU’s Eastern
Partnership summit, and said some progress had been reached.