ALIYEV AGREES TO MEET SARKISIAN
AzerNews Weekly
Jan 21 2009
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has agreed to meet with his Armenian
counterpart Serzh Sarkisian in Davos, Switzerland on the sidelines
of an economic forum that is due January 28, international mediators
said after talks in Baku on Tuesday.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is brokering a settlement
to the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, indicated that as agreed,
they could not elaborate broadly on the discussions held.
Yuri Merzlyakov, the Russian co-chair, said the mediators sensed
from the meetings held in the Azerbaijani capital that there were
tendencies toward reaching progress in the peace process.
"The issue of resolving the Garabagh problem on the basis of basic
principles remains on agenda. If the presidents` meeting takes place,
certain clarifications could be made and changes introduced to some
of the principles."
French co-chairman Bernard Fassier added that a peaceful solution
was the only option to settle the long-standing dispute.
The intermediaries met with President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov. Later in the day, they left for the Armenian
capital Yerevan. The co-chairs have expressed hope that President
Sarkisian would also agree to the next round of presidential talks
on Garabagh settlement.
The Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders last met in Moscow on November 2,
2008. A declaration was signed in conclusion of the talks, which took
place on the initiative of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus republics reared up in
the late 1980s due to Armenia`s territorial claims. Armenia has been
occupying over 20% of Azerbaijan`s internationally-recognized territory
since the early 1990s in defiance of international law. The ceasefire
accord was signed in May 1994, but over a decade of efforts by the US,
Russian and French mediators have been fruitless so far.