Azernews.Az

Baku did not achieve the results it was expecting at the latest round of talks over the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict between Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian held in Moscow, an Azerbaijani official has said.
Novruz Mammadov, the head of the Presidential Administration international relations department, said the hopes related to Garabagh settlement were not justified only due to Yerevan`s "changing stance."
Mammadov recalled that, prior to the meeting in the Russian capital, the Armenian leader had taken several encouraging steps at the previous meeting the two leaders held in St. Petersburg on June 4.
"Therefore, everyone was looking forward to this meeting with some extent of optimism," the Presidential Administration official said. "But the latest processes once again showed that there is a great deal of hypocrisy and insincerity in the Armenian side`s position. It appears as though they have made a point of altering their stance."
Mammadov added that these actions by the Armenian leadership had displayed the lack of firmness in its position and suggested as if Yerevan is not interested in resolving the long-standing conflict.
Presidents Aliyev and Sarkisian held talks in Moscow on July 17, in the latest round of internationally-mediated negotiations on the Garabagh problem. Discussions continued with the participation of their Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, on July 18. This was the sixth meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering peace talks have said the presidential talks proceeded constructively.
"The discussions were held in a frank and constructive atmosphere that allowed the sides to discuss at length and in detail proposed formulations to overcome their remaining differences on the few elements of the Basic Principles that have yet to be conceptually agreed," Yuri Merzlyakov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France and Matthew Bryza of the United States said in a joint statement released early last week.
The co-chairs told the two presidents they will hold a working session at the end of July in Krakow, Poland, to prepare an updated version of the Madrid Document in accordance with the declaration adopted by the MG co-chairing countries` leaders at a recent G8 summit in Italy.
In the declaration, US President Barack Obama, France`s Nicolas Sarkozy and Russia`s Dmitry Medvedev called on Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to resolve their differences and move towards a final accord on the long-standing conflict. The three presidents indicated that they were instructing their mediators to present to Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian "an updated version of a proposed peace outline brought forward in the Madrid Document of November 2007."
The mediators intend to visit the region in September to review the possibilities for a subsequent meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents either at the end of September or the beginning of October.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus republics reared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia`s territorial claims. Armenia has been occupying over 20% of Azerbaijan`s internationally-recognized territory since the early 1990s in defiance of international law. A ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but peace talks have been fruitless so far.

Two mediators `to be replaced`
Two of the three Minsk Group co-chairs will be replaced by the end of the year, the Russian co-chairman has told the Armenian media.
Merzlyakov said he and his US counterpart, Matthew Bryza, are expected to be succeeded by then. The Russian negotiator did not elaborate on his successor or his future career.
He added that Bryza is scheduled to pay his last visit to the region in the capacity of the MG co-chairman in fall.