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BAKU: Meeting between Presidents to give new opportunity for sides

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  • BAKU: Meeting between Presidents to give new opportunity for sides

    Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
    May 23 2009


    Meeting between Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia to give new
    opportunity for sides to bring positions closer: EU
    23.05.09 16:37


    Azerbaijan, Baku, May 23 /Trend News, J.Babayeva /

    The EU Special Representative for South Caucasus Peter Semneby shares
    the hope of the mediators that the forthcoming Saint Petersburg
    meeting between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will be a new
    opportunity for the sides to bring their positions closer, said the
    report on Semneby's visit to Azerbaijan on May 19-20, which was
    provided by Office of the EU Special Representative in Azerbaijan.


    "The European Union supports the work now being conducted by the three
    co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk group," the report says.

    The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
    when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
    armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
    including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding
    districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in
    1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the
    U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.

    The Presidents of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev and Armenia, Serj Sarkisian
    plan to meet in June in St. Petersburg within the participation in the
    economic forum.

    The EU Special Representative also discussed the Turkish-Armenian
    normalization process and its implications for Azerbaijan. "He
    outlined the EU's vision of the South Caucasus, where the opening of
    all borders would enhance regional security and permit the region to
    develop its full economic potential," the report says.


    Armenian-Turkish ties have been severed since 1993 due to Armenia's
    claims of an alleged genocide, and the country's occupation of 20
    percent of Azerbaijani lands.

    However, during his visit to Baku on 12-13 May, Turkish Prime Minister
    Rejep Tayyip Erdogan excluded the possibility of cooperation with
    Armenia unless the occupied territories of Azerbaijan are released.
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