ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI LEADERS TO HOLD KARABAKH TALKS OCTOBER 8

RIA Novosti
13:2306/10/2009

BAKU, October 6 (RIA Novosti) – The presidents of Azerbaijan and
Armenia will meet on October 8 in the Moldovan capital Chisinau
to discuss the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, a Russian mediator said
on Tuesday.

The co-chairmen of the Minsk Group, Yury Merzlyakov of Russia,
Bernard Fassier of France and Robert Bradtke of the United States, are
currently on a visit to the South Caucasus to prepare for the meeting.

"We arrived in Baku from Yerevan with approval for the proposal meeting
in Chisinau. The Azerbaijani president also gave his endorsement,"
Merzlyakov said.

Armenia’s Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan have met
several times over the past year since Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev pushed to restart efforts to resolve the conflict last fall.

Nagorny Karabakh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan with a predominantly
ethnic 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 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. The conflict is mediated by
the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, comprising the United States, Russia and France.