RIA Novosti

July 17, 2009 Friday 5:37 PM GMT+3

Armenia, Azerbaijan should make concessions on territory – OSCE chief

LENGTH: 362 words

DATELINE: BAKU July 17

The OSCE secretary general said on Friday that Armenia and Azerbaijan
should make concessions based on the principles set out by the Minsk
Group to settle the Nagorny Karabakh conflict.

The co-chairs of the Minsk Group, the United States, Russia and
France, which are mediating the territorial dispute between Baku and
Yerevan, said during the G8 meeting in L’Aquila earlier this month
they would submit a revised set of proposals on the disputed region of
Nagorny Karabakh to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"The principles declared in L’Aquila by leaders of the states
co-chairing the OSCE’s Minsk Group should be acceptable to both
parties in the conflict, and they should move towards rapprochement on
the basis of these principles," Marc Perrin de Brichambaut said at a
news conference in Baku.

"I believe today’s Moscow meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian
presidents, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, is an important step," he
added.

The presidents were to hold bilateral talks in Moscow on Friday before
trilateral discussions including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on
Saturday.

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 government
and is de facto independent.

According to the Minsk Group, Azerbaijan and Armenia must come to an
agreement on the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh on the basis
of the Madrid 2007 agreement.

The group also unveiled new principles for settling the dispute,
including defining Nargorny Karabakh’s status in regard to freedom of
movement with Armenia, as well as road and rail links between the
two. The group also said that security in the area be guaranteed and
troops should be withdrawn.

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.