Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday met with the visiting OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to discuss the current state and prospects for the talks on settling the long-running dispute as they wrapped up their visit to the region.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group -- Robert Bradtke of the United States, Igor Popov of Russia and Jacques Faure of France, as well as the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, traveled to the region November 19-26 to continue their efforts to assist the parties in finding a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the OSCE website reported on Monday.

The co-chairs discussed the ideas on the continuation of the peace process that they had presented to the sides in their joint meeting on October 27. The sides agreed to carry out further work on the level of foreign ministers.

The mediators held meetings in Baku, Yerevan and with the separatist authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh in Khankandi, the center of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh republic. They also visited Zangilan and Jabrail regions of Azerbaijan to assess developments in these territories since their last visit in October 2010.

The co-chairs expressed appreciation to Ambassador Kasprzyk and his team for their work in monitoring the ceasefire during this difficult period and for facilitating this trip to the region, particularly the travel to Zangilan and Jabrail regions.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 over Armenia's territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The ensuing war that displaced up to a million Azerbaijanis concluded with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Armenia has occupied about 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory since the war, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region, despite the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions urging its pullout. Peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.