Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to meet for conflict talks: Kremlin

Hurriyet

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in Moscow next weekend to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in talks mediated by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin said Wednesday.

“On November 2, 2008, in Moscow… a meeting will take place between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan with the participation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in 1988 on Armenian territorial claims over Azerbaijan.

Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts.

Some 10 percent of the Azeri population was displaced due to a series of bloody clashes both between and within the two neighboring countries.

In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group are currently holding peaceful negotiations.  

Analysts say Moscow is keen to maintain influence in Armenia, its main ally in the Caucasus, after the conflict between Russia and U.S.-allied Georgia in August raised tensions throughout the region.

The August war, which began when Georgia attacked its own breakaway enclave of South Ossetia, raised fears of similar violence in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nearly 30,000 were killed in the 1990s war over the enclave and soldiers on both sides continue to exchange sporadic fire, claiming lives.

Source: arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=10234987

Posted by admin October 2008

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