Azernews.Az

By Trend

Azerbaijan always declared its readiness for meetings with the Armenian foreign minister for the purpose of holding substantive negotiations aimed at achieving result, not only within international events, but also outside their format, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s acting spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva told Trend Nov. 14.

She was commenting on the information spread in the media about the meeting of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov with his Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanyan within the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting to be held in December in Milan.

“The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are conducting the relevant work in organizing such meetings,” she said. “The Azerbaijani side supports the proposal of the co-chairs on the progress of the peace talks [on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict] and on the invitation of Armenia to take constructive position in this process.”

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.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz