Azerbaijani, Armenian FMs may meet in July
By Rashid Shirinov
Azerbaijan is ready for substantive negotiations for the early settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the change of the inadmissible and unsustainable status quo, said Hikmat Hajiyev , the Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
Hajiyev, commenting on the possible meeting of the foreign ministers in July, told Trend that the joint statement issued after the meeting of the presidents in Saint-Petersburg notes the need for substantive negotiations to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
"In this context, during their last visit to the region, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs made a proposal to hold a meeting of the foreign ministers. Azerbaijan expressed its consent and willingness regarding the proposal,” he said.
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian earlier didn’t rule out a meeting with Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov in July.
Armenian media outlets report that Nalbandian announced about this while talking to reporters at the parliament on June 30.
Last time, Mammadyarov and Nalbandian met in Moscow on April 28 within a trilateral meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister. The ministers continued discussions on prospects for the progress of the negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement and stressed the need to implement the agreements reached at the summits in Vienna and St. Petersburg in 2016.
Following the tripartite talks, the foreign ministers met with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and exchanged views on the state of affairs regarding the settlement of the conflict.
Baku has repeatedly expressed its consent to come to the negotiating table with Armenia to solve the conflict by peaceful means, but Armenia continues to play for time and avoids substantive negotiations in order to preserve the inadmissible status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.
---
Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz