MG co-chair: Azerbaijani, Armenian presidents’ meeting to create conditions for Karabakh peace framework document

/By Azernews/

By Gunay Camal

Today’s meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will build trust, accelerate confidence-building, and create conditions for a framework document on peace on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

James Warlick, OSCE Minsk Group's US co-chair, tweeted on June 20, ahead of the meeting of President Aliyev and President Sargsyan, with the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen in St. Petersburg.

The May 16 meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan become the first talk since a surge in fighting in early April that killed Azerbaijani civilians and sparked fears of a return to full-scale war.

Top diplomats from the United States, Russia and France, who are spearheading efforts to end the decades-long conflict, participated in the talks aimed at strengthening a precious ceasefire brokered by Moscow.

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.

Azerbaijan and Armenia called a truce 22 years ago, on May 12 1994, to end the devastating war, but violence has flared up from time to time, most recently along the frontline of the troops. The Armenian troops most recently resorted to the aggression and provoked a deadly exchange of artillery fire in early April.

Experts and politicians agree that keeping the status quo raises fears for anew of all-out war, which can spread to larger area than its region.