Baku says ready for major peace deal on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
By Sara Rajabova
Azerbaijan is ready for a major peace agreement on the conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said.
"I agree with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's statement about the lack of progress in the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Mammadyarov said at a press conference on Friday.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said at a press conference after the meeting with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandyan that Moscow does not see any progress in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Mammadyarov said the conflicting sides have been discussing conflict settlement for several years, but the negotiations yield no results.
He went on to say that despite regular meetings of the two countries' ministers, there is no logical conclusion of these negotiations.
"There are many issues that must be discussed between the belligerents including the return of internally displaced persons, determination of the [Nagorno-Karabakh] status and other issues," he noted.
"We are ready to work on a big peace agreement," he said.
Mammadyarov also confirmed his upcoming meeting with the Armenian Foreign Minister in Poland in mid-May.
The meeting will take place in the framework of the EU Eastern Partnership ministerial council in Krakow on May 17-18, a diplomatic source told Trend news agency on Thursday.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against the neighboring country. Since a lengthy war between the two South Caucasus countries that displaced over a million Azerbaijanis and ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
Peace talks brokered by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have been largely fruitless so far.
The negotiations are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed in the Madrid Principles, also known as Basic Principles. The document envisions a return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons to return home.