International mediators arrive in Armenia for Karabakh talks

International mediators arrive in Armenia for Karabakh talks

13:26 | 14/ 01/ 2008

YEREVAN, January 14 (RIA Novosti) – Mediators from Russia, France and
the United States have arrived in Armenia’s capital for talks on the
breakaway Nagorny Karabakh province in Azerbaijan, the U.S. Embassy in
Yerevan announced on Monday.

The province, which was plunged into a conflict in the early 1990s, has
been a bone of contention between Azerbaijan and Armenia ever since the
violence.

The mediators represent the three countries that co-chair the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group,
set up in 1992 to encourage a peaceful resolution of the conflict
between the two former Soviet republics over Nagorny Karabakh.

The conflict over the province, which has a largely Armenian
population, first erupted in 1988 when it declared its independence
from Azerbaijan and its intention of joining Armenia.

Over 30,000 people were killed on both sides between 1988 and 1994, and
more than 100 died following a 1994 ceasefire. Nagorny Karabakh
remained in Armenian hands, but tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia
have persisted.