Azernews.Az

Media leaders from Azerbaijan and Armenia have held a rare meeting in Moscow in a bid to foster rapprochement between the two countries` societies to facilitate a settlement to their long-standing conflict over Nagorno Karabakh.

After the meeting, held at the initiative of Russian President`s envoy for international and cultural cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy at the Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russian newspaper) editorial office on Monday, the Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations paid a familiarization visit to the office of Russia`s state news agency ITAR-TASS.

Members of the Armenian delegation declined to make a statement for the press.

Chief editor of news.az portal Elnur Baimov, who was part of the Azerbaijani delegation, said the discussions were held in a ``positive`` atmosphere. He said the parties had reached a verbal agreement to avoid use of unethical expressions in the two countries` media about the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents and public representatives, as well as to scale down the propaganda shaping an image of an enemy for the two nations.

Baimov reminded that it was the second such meeting and said discussions were underway to determine a venue for the next one.

``Proposals have been made to conduct a meeting in Baku, Yerevan or Tbilisi,`` Baimov said. ``Such proposals were voiced last time as well. But the [second] meeting took place in Moscow again. So, a final decision [on holding a third meeting] has not been passed yet.``

Besides the news.az chief editor, Azerbaijan was represented at the latest meeting by the editors-in-chief of New Baku Post newspaper Tofig Abbasov and of 1news agency Rahman Hajiyev, General Director of Trend news agency Ilgar Huseynov, and journalist Azer Hesret.

Armenia was represented by an expert of the Association for Public Relations, Armen Minasyan, an expert on information security and culture, and blogger, Samvel Martirosyan, chief editor of Aravot newspaper Aram Abramyan, head of the Armenian presidential office`s public relations center Ara Sagatelyan and deputy editor-in-chief of Voice of Armenia newspaper Marina Grigoryan.

The meeting was also attended by Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu, Armenian Ambassador to Russia Oleg Yesayan, and Executive Director of the CIS Inter-state Humanitarian Foundation Armen Smbatyan.

We recall that the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders agreed to step up humanitarian contacts during their Russian-brokered meeting in Sochi in January.

Igor Popov, the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering Karabakh settlement, said during his last visit to Baku that the next meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian intellectuals would take place soon.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war over Nagorno Karabakh that ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994. Armenia has since occupied a part of Azerbaijan`s territory, despite four UN resolutions on an unconditional pullout of its armed forces and condemnation by a number of other international groups. Peace talks, brokered by the United States, Russia and France through the Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far.