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Diplomats make another attempt to settle NK conflict

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  • Diplomats make another attempt to settle NK conflict

    DIPLOMATS MAKE ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO SETTLE KARABAKH CONFLICT

    RIA Novosti, Russia
    May 12 2004

    BAKU/YEREVAN, May 12, (RIA Novosti) - Vardan Oskanyan, Armenia's
    foreign minister, and Elmar Mamedyarov, Azerbaijan's foreign
    minister, will discuss a settlement of the Nagorny-Karabakh conflict
    in Strasbourg.

    The meeting will take place within the framework of a Council of
    Europe foreign ministers session and the cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk
    Group on Nagorny Karabakh from the United States, Russia and France
    will participate in the meeting.

    Speaking about the coming meeting in Strasbourg, Yuri Merzlyakov, the
    Russian cochairman, said that the meeting of foreign ministers "will
    have an open agenda, that is, the sides of the conflict and the
    cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group can put forth any proposals at the
    meeting."

    According to Mr. Merzlyakov, "the mediators want to find a compromise
    between the so-called package and the stage-by-stage methods of
    settling the conflict."

    The press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Gamlet
    Gasparyan, said that "so far, there is no clear or fixed agenda of
    the negotiations." He added that a meeting of the personal
    representatives of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan on a
    Nagorny Karabakh settlement was not planned to be held in Strasbourg.

    The head of the press service of the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry,
    Metin Mirza, also said that he had no information about consultations
    being held in Strasbourg between the personal representatives of the
    Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents on a Karabakh settlement - Deputy
    Foreign Ministers Tatul Margaryan and Araz Azimov.

    On April 28, Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President
    Robert Kocharyan of Armenia met within the framework of the European
    Economic Summit in Warsaw. After the meeting they stated that they
    supported intensifying the negotiation process on a settlement to the
    Karabakh conflict.

    After it was defeated in a war with Armenia over Nagorny Karabakh
    (formally against Yerevan-supported armed units of the Armenian
    enclave in Azerbaijan whose capital is in Stepanakert and who wanted
    independence from Azerbaijan and their own state), Azerbaijan lost up
    to 30% of its own territory and over a million of its citizens have
    become refugees. Baku says that it will never reconcile the loss of
    Nagorny Karabakh and expresses its readiness to grant it autonomy but
    only as part of a united Azerbaijani state. However, seemingly
    neither Yerevan nor Stepanakert even consider this possibility.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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