Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group discussed the Armenian-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on March 24.

President Aliyev met with co-chairs - Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Jacques Faure of France, and James Warlick of the U.S. - as well as Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk within the framework of the Nuclear Security Summit held in The Hague, Netherlands.

The sides discussed the current state of and prospects for peace talks over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The same day the co-chairs also met with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward Nalbandian, as part of the Nuclear Security Summit.

U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Warlick assessed the meetings as positive.

"Working together, a lasting peace is possible," Warlick wrote on his Twitter page on March 24.

Warlick further noted that an agreement in principle has been reached to hold a meeting between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"Agreement in principle to a summit to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh. We will seek dates," Warlick wrote. "If the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan are open to constructive dialogue, we can find a way to lasting peace."

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.