Azernews.Az

BAKU – A senior Azerbaijani official has said Baku "attaches great importance" to the June 25 meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders to be hosted by the Russian president in Kazan, the next in a series of trilateral meetings on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Novruz Mammadov, the Presidential Administration official in charge of foreign relations, told reporters that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering peace talks highly value the forthcoming meeting as well.

Recalling the statement issued last week by the leaders of the co-chairing countries - the United States, France and Russia - at the G8 summit in the French resort of Deauville, Mammadov said that "in a way, it puts forth a demand" (to the sides) to reach a speedy settlement of the long-standing conflict.

The three leaders’ statement called on the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia "to demonstrate political will and finalize...the basic principles (of a peace agreement)" during the forthcoming meeting of the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian presidents.

According to the Presidential Administration official, Baku wants the demands put forward by both the Minsk Group co-chairs and the world community to change the status quo in the Karabakh conflict zone to be met.

"Changing the status quo may begin with the liberation of Azerbaijani territories -- the seven regions around Nagorno Karabakh -- from Armenian occupation. I believe the Armenian side will take this statement seriously and will no longer drag out the negotiating process under certain pretexts."

The Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 due to Armenia’s territorial claims. Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis. A ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but OSCE-brokered peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.

Peace talks are underway on the basis of the Madrid principles, a peace outline proposed by the OSCE mediators. Azerbaijani officials, including President Ilham Aliyev, have repeatedly said Baku accepts the Madrid Document with some exceptions. But Armenia has yet to state formally whether or not it accepts the peace outline, though Armenian officials have stated the country’s approval of the Madrid principles in a number of verbal statements.