Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian foreign ministers said they had managed to bring closer the sides’ positions on basic principles for settling the long-standing Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh during their meeting in Moscow on Saturday, the Baku-based ANS TV channel quoted Azerbaijan’s embassy in Russia as saying.

A document outlining the principles, agreed by Elmar Mammadyarov, Eduard Nalbandyan and Sergei Lavrov, will be submitted at the meeting of the three countries’ presidents, due on June 25 in the Russian city of Kazan, the report said.

The Karabakh conflict flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims. Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, since the two countries signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following a lengthy war. Peace talks are underway on the basis of the Madrid principles, a peace outline proposed by the mediating OSCE Minsk Group’s co-chairs.

The West has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to endorse the basic principles for settlement drafted in 2007, which stipulate a gradual Armenian withdrawal from the territories around Nagorno Karabakh and an "interim status" for the region, giving it enhanced legitimacy, but not independence.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said "good conditions" have emerged for a fair settlement of the long-standing conflict.

President Aliyev told a news conference with his Slovenian counterpart Danilo Turk in Ljubljana last week that it was important to change the status quo in the Karabakh conflict. He expressed hope that the ongoing peace talks would yield results and Azerbaijan's territorial integrity would be restored.