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Armenian, Azerbaijani foreign ministers' meeting to help avert armed
conflict - Yerevan

YEREVAN. Aug 10

An upcoming meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign
ministers scheduled for September will be aimed at preventing possible
hostilities in the region, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh
Kocharyan said.

"The mediators are setting one task - averting possible hostilities
and reducing the degree of tensions. This is task number 1," he told
reporters on Thursday.

Azerbaijan's policy "remains a policy of force, and this country is
trying to blackmail the mediators, but it will not succeed," Kocharyan
said.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov are expected to meet in New York in the
second half of September.

Nalbandian told reporters on Wednesday that "the meeting's agenda
includes ways to promote the negotiating process [on
Nagorno-Karabakh]. There is no alternative to negotiations."

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs proposed arranging a meeting on the
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process between the Armenian and
Azerbaijani presidents before the end of 2017.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers met previously in
Brussels on July 11.

The ceasefire between Armenia and the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic on one side and Azerbaijan on the other side was declared in
May 1994.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Minsk Group,
set up in 1992, has been mediating talks on finding a peaceful
solution to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The OSCE Minsk Group
includes Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland
and Turkey. It is co-chaired by Russia, France and the United States.