BAKU March 9
HIGHLIGHT: Azerbaijan is determined to hold goal-oriented talks to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis, Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva said on Saturday.
BAKU, March 9. /TASS/. Azerbaijan is determined to hold goal-oriented talks to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis, Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva said on Saturday.
"Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have suggested holding a summit meeting between Azerbaijan’s president and Armenia’s prime minister. Azerbaijan is committed to the negotiation and is always ready for substantive talks," she said commenting on the co-chairs’ statement on the two leaders’ upcoming meeting.
"Azerbaijan supports the efforts of [the OSCE Minsk Group’s] co-chairs aimed at settling the conflict through goal-oriented, intensive talks," she added.
The spokeswoman pointed out that the format of negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh should not be altered.
"The talks seeking to resolve the conflict are held by Armenia and Azerbaijan. The format of talks will remain unchanged," she stressed noting that the future of Nagorno-Karabakh should be discussed so that Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity cannot be undermined.
Earlier on Saturday, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of Russia, Stephane Visconti of France and Andrew Schofer of the United States) said in a press release that they welcomed the commitment of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to an upcoming summit meeting.
The highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh (Mountainous Karabakh) is a mostly Armenian-populated enclave inside the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. It was the first zone of inter-ethnic tensions and violence to appear on the map of the former USSR in February 1988. Then, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region declared independence from Azerbaijan, a republic within the Soviet Union at the time. In 1992-1994, hostilities broke out in the region between pro-Baku forces and Armenian residents, which resulted in the Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto independence. In 1994, a ceasefire was reached but the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been strained since then.
Since 1992, the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) co-chaired by Russia, France and the US have been holding talks to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.