Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict intend to organize a meeting between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Paris shortly. The date of Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward Nalbandyan's meeting is yet to be scheduled.

The Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Igor Popov, told Azerbaijani media that negotiations with both foreign ministers are ongoing and expressed hope that the ministerial will take place this week. Depending on the outcome of the meeting the Minsk Group co-chairs plan to visit the region.

Popov emphasized the importance of further negotiations on a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"The main point is to continue negotiations," he said. "The countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group are contributing to the promotion of dialogue between the two countries."

The Minsk Group, established in 1992 and co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States, has been working to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which emerged in 1988 and boiled into a brutal war in the early 1990s. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994. Peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.

Since the war, which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, defying UN resolutions.

Pascal Meunier, the French Ambassador in Baku, said earlier that preparations are underway to organize a meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian ministers. Meunier said he was unaware of details regarding the venue and date of the meeting. He also confirmed that Paris is making all efforts possible to resume contacts between Baku and Yerevan to advance a settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

During the latest meetings with Ministers Mammadyarov and Nalbandyan on Septemper 2-3, the Minsk Group co-chairs reiterated to both ministers that there is no alternative to a peaceful settlement of the long-standing dispute.

"The co-chairs will continue to maintain contacts with the sides to ease tensions and advance the peace process," they said.