Today’s Zaman, Turkey
July 13 2009

Ankara welcomes statement by OSCE’s Karabakh mediators

Ankara has welcomed a joint statement by the co-chairs of the Minsk
Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE), which is mediating between Baku and Yerevan to resolve the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

The United States, France and Russia called mutually on Friday for the
leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to settle a long-running dispute
over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. In a statement released at the Group
of Eight (G-8) summit in Italy, the three countries, which co-chair
the OSCE’s Minsk Group, said they `affirm our commitment’ to efforts
by Armenia and Azerbaijan to finalize `the basic principles for
settlement’ of the conflict.

A written statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry over the
weekend recalled that the OSCE statement said the countries were
instructing their mediators to present to the presidents of Armenia
and Azerbaijan an updated version of a proposed peace outline brought
forward in the Madrid Document of November 2007.

`We urge the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the few
differences remaining between them and finalize their agreement on
these basic principles,’ the Minsk Group statement said.

`The impression we got up to today is that the principles mentioned
constitute a general framework. The presence of some nuances in the
approaches of the two sides concerning these basic principles should
be considered natural,’ the ministry said, adding that what matters is
the quick completion of negotiations on these basic principles in
order to reach a peaceful resolution of the dispute which has
continued to be a `bleeding wound for both Azerbaijan and Armenia and
for the South Caucasus region for years.’

13 July 2009, Monday
TODAY’S ZAMAN ANKARA

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress