Agence France Presse — English
June 4, 2006 Sunday 5:58 PM GMT
Armenian, Azerbaijani presidents meet to discuss disputed enclave
BUCHAREST, June 4 2006
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan met Sunday in Bucharest to
discuss the disputed enclave of Nagorno Karabakh.
Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani leader Ilham
Aliyev got together for a face-to-face meeting hosted by the Polish
embassy, an Armenian diplomat said, requesting anonymity.
It was the first meeting between the two men since the February 2006
talks in France, which failed in their aim of setting out a framework
for a negotiated settlement of the near-20-year-old conflict.
Kocharian and Aliyev, who will on Monday take part in a forum of the
Black Sea contries in Bucharest, were also received by Romanian
President Traian Basescu.
The pair discussed the Nagorno Karabakh problem with the Romanian
president, Basescu’s office said in a statement, without giving
details.
The Armenian-majority enclave of Nagorno Karabakh seceded from
Azerbaijan in the late 1980s, sparking a six-year conflict between
Armenia ad Azerbaijan that claimed that 25,000 lives and displaced
hundreds of thousands of people.
Despite a 1994 ceasefire, tensions remain high and the mountainous
region, surrounded by Azerbaijani territory, is separated by one of
the world’s most militarized zones.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
