HistoryofTruth.com - Armenian Allegations

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs will arrive in the region next week to meet with Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov told Trend News over telephone from Moscow.

“We will come to the region to prepare meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents to be held in Moscow in mid-July,” he said.

The last meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenia Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan took place in St. Petersburg on June 4. This was fifth meeting on resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The previous meeting was held in Prague on June 7. The first meeting was held in St. Petersburg in June 2008 and second meeting in Moscow in late November 2008 and third was held in Zurich on Jan. 28, 2009.

Merzlyakov said OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are making every effort so that this meeting will be held in a constructive atmosphere.

’We hope to achieve progress in talks on resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,“he said.

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.