GARABAGH MEDIATORS TO MEET IN ISTANBUL MARCH 20
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 13 2006
Baku, March 10, AssA-Irada
The OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh are due to hold their next
meeting in Istanbul on March 20. The schedule of the Minsk Group
co-chairs’ visit to the region will depend on the positions and
readiness of the conflicting sides, says a joint statement of
the intermediaries who have completed their three-day meeting in
Washington.
“We call on the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities to make efforts
to prepare their people not for war, but peace. We urge both sides to
be guided by the developed principles in order to settle the conflict
in 2006.”
The mediators said that despite the unsuccessful outcome of the latest
round of presidential talks in France, they continue to believe that a
number of pre-conditions are fostering a conducive basis to solve the
long-standing dispute this year, Radio Liberty quoted the mediators
as saying.
The discussions held by the two leaders in the French town of
Rambouillet in February turned out fruitless, as the parties failed
to iron out issues of principle, which was followed by mutual threats.
The next meeting of the Azeri and Armenian presidents may take place
during a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States leaders in
Minsk in September, according to the head of the President’s Office
international relations department, Novruz Mammadov.