Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Yesterday's meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Vienna was the first since fighting on the contact line of troops in early April.

The meeting was also attended by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, French Minister of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir, OSCE Minsk group co-chairs, and special representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The presidents reiterated their commitment to the ceasefire and the peaceful settlement of the conflict and agreed to finalize in the shortest possible time an OSCE investigative mechanism.

The world powers welcomed the Vienna meeting over Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

Turkish Foreign Ministry reported that the conflict must be resolved within Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.

"Turkey urges the OSCE Minsk Group (MG) to be more active on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's settlement," said the ministry. "Turkey's position remains unchanged - the conflict must be resolved peacefully."

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal noted that France also praised the results in Vienna meeting, which allowed to resume the dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan after bloody clashes.

“These obligations are of great importance. France calls on the parties to comply with them and will continue to play the role of mediator as co-chair of the Minsk Group, together with its Russian and American partners,” Nadal said.

The UK also welcomes Vienna's meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, says a message posted on UK's foreign ministry's Facebook page.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz