Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 16

By Ilhama Isabalayeva – Trend:

Armenia once again returned to negotiations table as a result of international pressure, Azerbaijani MP Asim Mollazade told Trend Oct. 16 commenting on the Geneva meeting of presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan.

“Azerbaijan wants peace. However, Armenia is not ready for peace and will not take any serious steps. Armenia will break this process at the most important moment,” noted the MP.

President Aliyev and President Sargsyan held a summit in Geneva, Switzerland on Oct. 16. Foreign ministers, Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward Nalbandian also attended the meeting, which was organized under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.

Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the summit.

A joint statement by the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia and the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group following the Geneva meeting of the two presidents says that the meeting took place in a constructive atmosphere.

The presidents agreed to take measures to intensify the negotiation process over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement and to take additional steps to reduce tensions on the line of contact between the two countries’ troops, reads a joint statement by the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia and the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group following the Geneva meeting.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.