Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Ahead of the meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents, world powers expressed hope for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, will meet in Vienna on November 19 to discuss the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The U.S. and Turkey have discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh issue during Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's visit to Washington, the U.S. State Department reported.

"We have been trying to work ways that our ambassadors, who are front and center in this - in these initiatives, are continuing that process," U.S. State Secretary John Kerry said.

He said the U.S. is urging that process to move forward, and the country will continue to be engaged in it.

Kerry said that he has had telephone conversations with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh a day before the Presidents' meeting.

Davutoglu, in turn, said that Turkey and the U.S. have the same opinions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

"We hope that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem will be solved soon and stability will be restored in the Caucasus region," Davutoglu said.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia hopes for the resumption of contacts between the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, and is ready to assist in resolving the problem.

He expressed hope that direct contacts between the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders will be resumed in the near future.

"As I said, we will do our best to help create the necessary atmosphere to reach a resolution for the conflict upon the agreements reached earlier," Lavrov said.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.