The Moscow meeting will show whether it is possible to advance in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, told journalists on July 9.
“Today, Baku will host a meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, who yesterday were in Yerevan, and we will talk with them and see with what the message will be,” the minister said.
The next meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, is scheduled to be held in Moscow in mid-July during the informal international horse races for the Russian President’s Prize. The last time Aliyev and Sargsyan met was in St. Petersburg on June 4.
“It is a very important and serious issue to determine the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh, Karabakh is a part of Azerbaijan, whose legal status should be determined by Azerbaijan. This case is unusual as one part of Azerbaijan remains without a status,” the foreign minister said.
Mammadyarov said that internally displaced persons must return to Karabakh, otherwise it would be difficult to determine the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. “This is part of the negotiations with the Armenian side,” he said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Trend
