YEREVAN—The presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian, will meet to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in November, a statement from the OSCE Minsk Group said.
The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassadors Igor Popov of Russian, Jacques Faure of France, James Warlick of the USA, and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, traveled to the region November 4 to 5 to continue their efforts to help the sides find a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
They met with Azerbaijani President Aliyev in Baku on November 4, and Armenian President Sarkisian in Yerevan on November 5, to discuss issues of importance for a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. They also met with the Foreign Ministers and the Defense Ministers of both countries.
“The Presidents have confirmed their intention to meet in November 2013 to clarify their positions on a settlement and to discuss the way forward,” said the statement from the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian received the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on Tuesday.
The interlocutors discussed issues related to the current stage and the future steps in the negotiation process on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
There is a window of opportunity to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict now that has not existed for some time, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick said in an interview with Trend and AzerNews on Monday.
“The U.S. believes in this window of opportunity. We want to work through the co-chairs and if there is anything that we can do on a bilateral basis that will help to facilitate the peace process, we stand ready,” Warlick said.
“I believe the people of both countries – Armenia and Azerbaijan deserve peace and prosperity. We need to find a way to that. The reason I took this job as co-chair is because I believe it is possible to find a way towards peace,” he said.
Warlick said he is ready to come back to the region as many times as it is necessary in order to reach peaceful settlement.
Speaking about the possibility of a meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Warlick said it is up to the two Presidents to decide.
“It is not the decision to be made only by co-chairs. But we are trying to work to organize the meeting this year,” he said.
According to Warlick, what the co-chairs want to do is to bring the presidents together to talk through the way forward.
“It has been nearly two years the presidents have seen each other and over those two years we have not been able to find a way forward. We hope the presidents can meet, have a productive discussion, constructive discussion that can find a way forward,” he said.
“We are hopeful that if the presidents can talk to each other, they will find a way to move forward to constructive negotiations. Right now the process is not moving forward in the productive way and we would like to get that on the track towards peace,” he underlined.
Speaking on the basic principles for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Warlick said that this is exactly what the presidents need to talk about.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met with the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov, Jacques Faure and James Warlick and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk.
Edward Nalbandian and the mediators discussed the possible ways of furthering the process of settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
The Co-Chairs briefed Minister Nalbandian on their impressions from the meetings in Baku.
Edward Nalbandian drew the attention of the Co-Chairs to the continuous statements from Baku, distorting the essence and nature of the negotiation process and the frequent violations of the ceasefire regime by the Azerbaijani side, underlining that they hinder the advancement of the negotiation process.
The opportunities of organizing the meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents in the near future were discussed.
