OSCE MG planning Azerbaijan-Armenia presidential meeting
By Sara Rajabova
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are working on organizing a meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, Interfax news agency reported.
Russian co-chair of the Minsk Group Igor Popov told journalists in Yerevan that the negotiating process should be continued at the top level. "To make the two presidents meet, they should be offered a substantive agenda. This is what we are working on now," Popov said.
He said his meetings with the Armenian leaders will focus on issues related to the fundamental principles of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
"A number of issues were discussed at a meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in Paris. Not all issues have been settled. We'll work on the rest," Popov said.
The co-chairs started their visit to the region on February 3 from Azerbaijan, where they met with Azerbaijani President and high ranking officials to discuss the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
They visited Yerevan on February 5, to hold discussion with the Armenian officials.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said on February 4 the Minsk Group co-chairs will leave for Yerevan with a number of proposals.
Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan intends to continue negotiations to achieve progress in resolving the Karabakh conflict.
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.