Azernews.Az

The OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict have offered to hold the next meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian in a European city, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists.
According to him, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are holding discussions to specify the venue and date of the upcoming talks, which will be known in the coming days.
The co-chairs - Yury Merzlyakov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France and Robert Bradtke of the United States – said in a statement following their talks with officials in Baku and Yerevan on November 4-6 that both presidents had reiterated their commitment to continue discussions on the peaceful settlement of the Garabagh conflict and accepted the proposal to organize their next meeting, the sixth one this year, before the end of November.
Mammadyarov also said that, following the presidential talks, on December 1-2, he will meet his Armenian counterpart on the sidelines of an OSCE ministerial in Athens.
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. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but efforts by international mediators have been unsuccessful so far.
Mammadyarov noted that peace talks are underway focusing on the basic principles of the conflict settlement that have been under discussion for five years. He went on to criticize Yerevan’s position.
"Unfortunately, the Armenian side has again tabled and put on discussion the issues that we thought had already been agreed. In this case negotiating is very difficult. We are ready to move forward but don’t know whether the Armenian side really wants this progress or this will merely remain a topic of negotiations."
The minister reminded that Baku supports a stage-by-stage settlement of the long-standing dispute, saying a withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories is an important condition for reaching peace.
"If the Armenian armed forces fail to pull out of the occupied land, it will be impossible to restore communications [between the two countries]. In this case, what peace, what economy, what relations can one talk about? Therefore, their troops must be withdrawn in the first stage. It is this very withdrawal that will pave the way for addressing other issues. Armenia, however, is looking to define more conditions prior to having pulled its troops."
Mammadyarov said Yerevan is seeking to specify the status of Upper Garabagh now, though this is to be done during the last stage of the peace process, and, at this point, only granting the region an interim status could be considered.
"We have to determine what conditions we need to provide to enable the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Upper Garabagh to live together. They should have their police, head of executive authority, authorities…All these issues are a subject of discussion in talks."
The minister noted that Baku has always stated its readiness to grant a high status to Upper Garabagh.
"The Azerbaijani and Armenian communities living there will jointly determine the status. But, in any case, this status will be determined within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity," Mammadyarov added.*