PARIS MEETING OF AZERBAIJANI, ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS IS POSITIVE STEP - EU

Trend, Azerbaijan
Oct 29 2014

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

The Paris meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia is a
positive step on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, the head
of the EU representative office in Azerbaijan Malena Mard said.

"I think these kinds of high level meetings are definitely very
important towards changing the status-quo and peaceful resolution,"
Mard told Trend Oct. 29.

Mard said that it is important that these kinds of high level meetings
will continue in the future.

Joint meeting of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
took place in Paris October 27, the official website of the Azerbaijani
president said earlier.

The meeting took place at the initiative of French President Francois
Hollande. Then there was a meeting of President of Azerbaijan Ilham
Aliyev and President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

Thereafter, a joint meeting of French President Francois Hollande,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group took place.

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.

Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are
currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented
four U.N. Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the
Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.