Russian, Armenian, Azeri leaders to discuss Karabakh principles

00:5418/07/2009

MOSCOW, July 18 (RIA Novosti) – The presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan
and Armenia will meet on Saturday for trilateral talks on the basic
principles of a settlement for the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, a Russian
presidential adviser said.

Sergei Prikhodko told journalists that there were no plans to sign any
agreements after the presidents’ discussions.

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham
Aliyev, held one-on-one talks in Moscow on Friday, the latest in a
series of discussions since Russian President Dmitry Medvedev brought
the two sides back to the negotiating table last year.

Friday’s meeting focused on the principles for resolving the dispute
agreed at an internationally mediated conference in Madrid in 2007.

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.

The co-chairs of the Minsk Group – the United States, Russia and France
– said during the G8 summit in Italy earlier this month that they would
submit a revised set of proposals on the disputed region, and that any
agreement must be based on the Madrid accord.

The 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.