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U.S. diplomat, Armenian president discuss Karabakh

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  • U.S. diplomat, Armenian president discuss Karabakh

    Interfax, Russia
    Aug 7 2009


    U.S. diplomat, Armenian president discuss Karabakh

    YEREVAN Aug 7


    Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and U.S. co-chairman of the OSCE
    Minsk Group Matthew Bryza met in Yerevan on Friday to discuss the
    Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process.

    Sargsyan and Bryza exchanged their views on the conflict resolution
    process, the Armenian president's press office told Interfax.

    The authorities in Baku lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven
    neighboring districts during a bloody conflict between Azerbaijan and
    Armenia in the 1990s. As a result of the conflict, up to one million
    Azeri people had to leave their homes. The UN Security Council adopted
    resolutions denouncing the occupation of the Azeri territories and
    ordering Armenia's armed forces to leave the region.

    The OSCE Minsk Group, which includes representative of the U.S.,
    Russia and France, has been working to help Armenia and Azerbaijan
    find a solution to the conflict.

    Baku insists that the conflict be resolved gradually: at the first
    stage Armenia will withdraw its troops from all seven occupied Azeri
    territories around Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri forced migrants will
    return there. Economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Armenia
    could also resume at this stage.

    At the second stage the parties will discuss the political status of
    Nagorno-Karabakh proper. A referendum has been suggested as one of the
    possible ways to determine the status. Baku is against any attempt to
    separate Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan and offers a high degree of
    autonomy to this region.

    Armenia, for its part, offers to resolve the issue by trading seven
    occupied areas of Azerbaijan outside Nagorno-Karabakh in exchange for
    the enclave's security. Yerevan says the return of the areas and the
    Nagorno-Karabakh status are the issues that must be decided
    concurrently.
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