Azeri, Armenian foreign ministers discuss Karabakh in Prague
ANS TV, Baku
11 Jan 05
[Presenter] The Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers have
finished their meeting in Prague a short while ago. Zaur Hasanov, a
correspondent with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has the
details. Hello, Zaur, we can hear you.
[Hasanov, over the phone] The meeting between the Armenian and
Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Vardan Oskanyan and Elmar Mammadyarov,
started at 1000 local time today. They met in an area near the Czech
president’s office. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs from the USA and
Russia, Steven Mann and Yuriy Merzlyakov, and also the OSCE
representative, Andrzej Kasprzyk, also attended the meeting.
After the meeting, Elmar Mammadyarov told Radio Liberty that although
the talks were difficult, they were being continued. After the Prague
talks, the foreign ministers will meet again in one of the European
capitals in late February or early March.
Azerbaijan’s foreign minister clarified official Baku’s position as
follows: The internally displaced persons must go back to their homes
and the Armenian army must pull out of Nagornyy Karabakh. Mammadyarov
reiterated that official Baku would not make concessions on
fundamental issues. He said that Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity
and an exchange of territories was not a subject of the talks.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said he could not assess the
Prague meeting as bad on the whole. He said open discussions were
being held on the Karabakh settlement. He said the sides had held an
open discussion. At this meeting, we attempted to consolidate the
principles we had agreed on during our previous meetings, end quote.