YEREVAN, December 3. /ARKA/. Armenian Acting Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan will meet with his Azerbaijani counterpart Almar Mammadyarov on December 5 in Milan under mediation by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, the press office of the Armenian foreign ministry reports.
The two countries’ foreign ministers met before that in September under the OSCE Minsk Gruyop co-chairs’ mediation.
They exchanged opinions about Karabakh conflict settlement and arranged for continuation of the dialogue.
Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.
On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan.
Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions adjacent to it.
Some 30,000 people were killed in this war and about one million people fled their homes.
On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations.
Тalks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France. -0—–