RUSSIA BACKS DIALOGUE BETWEEN ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI LEADERS

news.az
Jan 22 2010
Azerbaijan

Sergey Lavrov Russia actively supports the dialogue between the
presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov said today.

"As for the next presidential meeting, we hope it will promote
continuation of the dialogue held between Presidents Sargsyan and
Aliyev last year. The dialogue was quite intensive; it did not lead
to any impressive breakthrough but strengthened relations between
the two leaders and allowed them a deep insight into the issues they
will have to settle. We are actively supporting the continuation of
the dialogue," Lavrov told a briefing in Moscow.

The Kremlin’s news service reported earlier that the meeting of the
presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the resolution of
the Karabakh conflict will be held in Sochi on 25 January.

The Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh
Sargsyan, met a total of nine times in 2009. Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev attended two of the meetings.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan made positive comments about the
presidents’ last meeting in Munich on 22 November.

The Karabakh conflict was initiated in February 1988 when the Karabakh
Autonomous Region, which had a predominantly Armenian population
centered in Stepanakert, declared secession from Azerbaijan.

Stepanakert announced the creation of the Nagorno-Karabakh republic
in September 1991 within the borders of the former autonomous region
and neighbouring parts of Azerbaijan. Official Baku recognized this
act as illegal and withdrew the autonomy that had existed in Karabakh
in the Soviet era.

The armed conflict during which Azerbaijan tried to prevent Karabakh
from secession while Armenian divisions fought for the independence
of the region with the support of Yerevan and Armenian diaspora from
other countries lasted until 12 May 1994 when a cease-fire came into
force. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Karabakh and part
or all of seven adjacent districts. Negotiations on the peaceful
resolution of the conflict have been held since 1992 within the
framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States,
Russia and France. Azerbaijan insists on the preservation of its
territorial integrity while Armenia defends the interests of the
Armenians of Karabakh. Neither the Armenians living in Karabakh,
nor the Azerbaijanis forced to flee the region take direct part in
the negotiations.

A joint statement of the presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing
countries was adopted in L’Aquila in Italy at the G8 summit on 10
July 2009. They consider that the agreement between the Azerbaijani
and Armenian leadership should be reached on the basis of the Basic
Principles of the 2007 Madrid agreement. Those principles include the
return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani
control, an interim status for Karabakh providing guarantees for
security and self-governance, and the future determination of the
final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding
expression of will.

In a joint statement on 1 December last year, the foreign ministers
of Russia, France, the first deputy US Secretary of State and the
foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia appreciated the positive
dynamics in the negotiations and agreed that the growing frequency
of the meetings between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia "has
intensified the dialogue between the sides and promoted coordination
of the main principles of the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh
conflict proposed in Madrid".

Medvedev discussed the Karabakh conflict settlement during negotiations
with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Moscow on 18 January. The
settlement was also discussed during shuttle diplomacy by the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs in Yerevan and Baku on 19-21 January.