OSCE CHIEF TO DISCUSS KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS, AZERI POLLS
Itar-Tass, Russia
Sept 5 2005
BAKU, September 5 (Itar-Tass) – Dimitrij Rupel, current Chairman
of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
is to meet with the leaders of this Transcaucasian republic here on
Monday to discuss matters connected with the Nagorno-Karabakh peace
process and with the talks held by the Presidents of Azerbaijan and
Armenia in Kazan on August 27.
According to diplomatic sources, the OSCE chief is to meet with Azeri
President Ilkham Aliyev, Prime Minister Artur Rasi-zade, Parliament
Speaker Murtuz Aleskerov, Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov, and with
Nizami Bakhmanov, leader of the Azeri community of Nagorno-Karabakh.
During the upcoming meetings, Rupel is expected to discuss the
situation in Azerbaijan on the eve of the November 6 parliamentary
elections. He is also scheduled to meet with Gerd Arens, chief of
the OSCE mission that begins Monday to monitor preparations for the
elections to Azerbaijan’s top legislature.
According to the Baku-based office of the OSCE, the parliamentary
elections will be monitored so far by an extended mission consisting
of 28 observers. On the eve of the polling day, a short-term mission,
which is to include more than 500 international observers, is to join
in the monitoring.