Great progress was not observed during the meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a briefing Nov. 3. However, French President Francois Hollande’s statement that it is time to start working over a great peace agreement is progress.
He said that it is necessary to continue working over the issues that have not yet been agreed.
Mammadyarov said that the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting will take place in Basel (Switzerland) in early December. A meeting of foreign ministers of the sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is planned to be held with OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen as part of this meeting.
“An important condition for the talks is the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories,” Mammadyarov said. “The mediators agree with this issue.”
A joint meeting of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group took place in Paris Oct. 27, the official website of the Azerbaijani president said earlier.
The meeting took place at the initiative of French President Francois Hollande. Then there was a meeting of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.
Thereafter, a joint meeting of French President Francois Hollande, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group took place.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four U.N. Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
/trend.az/
