Trend, Azerbaijan
Jan 22 2010

Azerbaijani senior official: Sochi may provide grounds for advancing
Karabakh settlement

Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 22 / Trend News M.Aliyev /

Azerbaijani President’s Administration International Relations
Department Head Novruz Mammadov voiced his hope that the upcoming
meeting of the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Sochi will provide a ground for certain
progress in settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Jan. 25, Sochi will host a meeting of the presidents of Russia,
Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Russian
president’s official website reported.

"I think acting sensibly Armenian leadership can create certain
conditions for solving the conflict amid the latest development," he
told journalists.

That is, taking a constructive attitude Armenia will create
opportunities for progress in the settlement process, he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are
currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. General Assembly’s
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the
occupied territories.