RUSSIA, ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN TO DISCUSS NAGORNY KARABAKH JULY 18

RIA Novosti
July 15, 2009
MOSCOW

The presidents of Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan will discuss the
Nagorny Karabakh peace process in Moscow on Saturday, a Russian
presidential aide said on Wednesday.

"The meeting is due to take place on July 18 in the Kremlin," Sergei
Prikhodko said.

He added however that there were "no plans to sign any documents"
at this stage.

"The most important thing is to bring the sides’ positions closer,"
he said.

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

The presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh
Sargsyan, discussed the conflict in early May in Prague on the
sidelines of the EU’s Eastern Partnership summit.

A war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the mountainous enclave in
1988-1994 left an estimated 35,000 people dead.