Azerbaijani FM: Meeting with Armenian FM has been unsuccessful

As part of the informal meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in Almaty, Azerbaijan's top diplomat Elmar Mammadyarov met his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian to discuss the peace process over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on July 17.

Foreign ministers Bernard Kouchner of France, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg, as well OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs were present at the meeting.

While commenting his discussion with the Armenian counterpart, the Azerbaijani minister said they made “great” efforts to issue a joint statement of the foreign ministers from the five countries.

“Unfortunately, by objecting to some issues, the Armenian minister prevented the issuing of the joint statement. Therefore, the statement was issued on behalf of the ministers of the OSCE Minsk group co-chair countries,” Mammadyarov said.

The Azerbaijani FM said “the main issue was to make the statement another step forward”.

He noted that presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia have issued a statement in Canada, which contains six principles for the conflict resolution.

“Among these principles are withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, returning of the internally displaced persons to their homes and opening of the road between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,” Mammadyarov pointed out.

The Minister said if Armenia, at the first stage, withdraws its troops, all roads and communications will be opened between the two countries.

“Armenia may have an access to Nagorno-Karabakh through either Lachin, or Kalbajar or Zangilan. We accept it. We are ready to cooperation with our neighbors, and to discussion of any question with them if occupied territories of Azerbaijan are liberated. Armenia is our neighbor and we would like to establish normal relations with the neighboring countries,” the Azerbaijani chief diplomat said.

“Unfortunately, this question did not find its solution and we can not say that we have reached any progress. We have decided to continue the work with the co-chairs,” Mammadyarov stressed.

The Azerbaijani FM added that the co-chairs would visit the region until September, 2010.


/AzerTAc/