FRANCE: Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on Nagorno-Karabakh in Paris at the French Foreign Ministry

Armenian and Azeri Foreign Ministers held talks in Paris on Tuesday (October 24) in the frame of a meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group. The meeting was aimed at reaching an agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The mediators of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Minsk group - - Russia, the United States and France - - held intense discussions with Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and his Azeri counterpart Elmar Mamediarov to explore new ways in view of a future settlement. However, both ministers posed for photographers together with the French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy in the gardens of the Quai d'Orsay and shaked hands in a warm manner. According to a statement, both ministers have accepted to meet again on November 14th in Brussels. It also said that the Minsk Group co-chairs intend to visit the region again by the end of November to assesss whether the presidents of the Armenia and Azerbaijan could meet again on Karabakh issue in 2006. The conflict started in February 1988 when the local assembly of Nagorny-Karabach made a decision to secede from Azerbaijan and unite with Armenia. A total of 25,000 people died and hundreds of thousands others fled the enclave between 1988 and 1994. In spite of a ceasefire agreement signed in 1994, clashes remain frequent at the borders.

ITN Source | October 25, 2006

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