Azernews.Az

KHANKENDI/AZERBAIJAN – OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict on Wednesday met with Bako Saakian, the leader of the self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh republic.

During the talks held by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Igor Popov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France and Robert Bradtke of the United States – it was reiterated that the long-standing Nagorno Karabakh conflict is to be resolved strictly within the Minsk Group and that vesting the peace process in other organizations would not facilitate a solution, Armenian media reported. No details of the meeting are disclosed.

"We came to Nagorno Karabakh directly from Baku, having crossed the contact line of [Azerbaijani and Armenian] troops," French co-chairman Fassier told reporters after the meeting in Khankandi, the center of the self-styled republic. "As you know, this is the first such instance in the past nine years."

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 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally-recognized territory since the early 1990s in defiance of international law. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.

Fassier said crossing the line of contact and arriving in Khankandi was, by itself, remarkable.

"As for the talks held, I will not be able to disclose this. We will be in Yerevan tomorrow and meet with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian. Further, a statement will be issued on the co-chairs’ behalf summarizing our visit to the region."

On Tuesday, the mediators held talks in Baku with President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov as well as the leaders of Nagorno Karabakh’s Azerbaijani community.

On Wednesday, the co-chairs also observed an OSCE monitoring on the contact line of the two countries’ troops.