Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said he was unaware of OSCE mediators’ planning to arrange a meeting of Azerbaijan and Armenia’s leaders this month to discuss the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Armenian media have reported that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs plan to organize talks between the two presidents when the United Nations’ 66th session opens on September 13.

Mammadyarov added that Baku supports further negotiations on resolving the long-standing Karabakh conflict.

The report on the planned presidential meeting, circulated by the Aykakan Jamanak newspaper, said international diplomats consider it the last chance to achieve a solution of the dispute, in light of the political tensions expected in Armenia later this month. Moreover, elections will soon be held in the countries co-chairing the Minsk Group – the United States, Russia and France.

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. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.