Azernews.Az

The talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders on the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict held in Munich, Germany on Sunday were constructive and progress was made "in some areas", the OSCE mediators brokering the peace process have said.
"During this meeting, the sixth such meeting this year, the two presidents engaged in a detailed and in-depth discussion of the most important unresolved points in the co-chairs' proposals. The talks, which lasted almost four hours, were constructive. In some areas, progress was made. At the same time, some issues still remain open," the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Yury Merzlyakov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France, and Robert Bradtke of the United States - said in a joint statement.
Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian instructed their foreign ministers to continue working with the co-chairs on these matters. As a next step, the mediators are organizing a working session with the two ministers in advance of the OSCE Ministerial Council, which will take place December 1-2 in Athens, the statement said.
The Azerbaijani government has confirmed advances had been made at the presidential talks in bringing closer the sides’ positions. Elkhan Polukhov, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said the significance of the meeting is also proven by its lasting nearly four hours.
The presidents met at the residence of the French Consul General in Munich at the initiative of the Minsk Group co-chairs. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian, as well as the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, also participated in the talks.
The French Foreign Ministry said earlier that the talks were to focus on returning the Armenia-occupied territories surrounding Upper Garabagh to Azerbaijani control; security and granting an interim status to the region allowing for self-administration; creating a corridor linking Armenia with Upper Garabagh; determining the region’s final legal status; providing guarantees for the return of Azerbaijani refugees to their homes; and stationing peacekeeping forces in the region.
Reuters has quoted the French co-chairman Fassier as saying that "some difficulties" had been identified despite significant progress in the peace process. He did not elaborate due to confidentiality and only said the presidents had for the first time exchanged views on so many issues. Along with unresolved matters the two leaders discussed new topics, Fassier said.
US mediator Robert Bradtke said he was impressed by the political will to seek a settlement, BBC News reported.
"I think today what was impressive was the way the two presidents worked with us, ... their willingness to discuss points that are quite difficult and quite controversial and I think, as someone who is relatively new to this process, that is what impressed me the most," he said.
Russia’s Yury Merzlyakov said he had called on the presidents to refrain from making strongly-worded statements against each other at this sensitive time in peace talks and from rhetoric about seeking a military solution to the long-standing dispute.
The Azerbaijani leader said last week that the latest meeting should be crucial for resolving the conflict. In remarks broadcast on Azerbaijan’s TV channel on Saturday, President Aliyev warned that the Munich talks were the final hope of settling the issue peacefully and, if the meeting failed to reach agreement he would be "left with no other option" but to use force to free the country’s occupied land.
"We have the full right to liberate our land by military means," he said.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since a brutal war there in the 1990s that claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about one million Azerbaijanis from their homes. Armenia continues to occupy Upper Garabagh and seven adjacent Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but the OSCE-brokered peace talks have been fruitless so far. Azerbaijan has never ruled out military action to liberate its land and has spent billions on dollars on building up its military.
The meeting was the first since Armenia and Turkey, Azerbaijan’s ally, moved to normalize their strained relations after a century of hostility caused by Armenia’s occupying Azerbaijani territory and Armenian claims on alleged World War I-era genocide in the Ottoman Empire.*