EU names St. Petersburg meeting as positive step towards peaceful settlement of Karabakh conflict

/By Azernews/

By Gunay Camal

A presidential summit scheduled for June 20 in St. Petersburg is a positive step towards a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Head of the EU Delegation to Baku, Malena Mard made the remark while talking to reporters on June 20, further adding that the EU supports all steps taken in this direction.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan are expected to meet in St. Petersburg, with the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen.

"We, as the European Union, are in favor of a peaceful settlement of the conflict. We support all efforts in this direction, including the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group. This meeting, of course, is a positive step in resolving the conflict. In order to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the conflict it is necessary to establish a dialogue between the parties,” Mard stressed.

The May 16 meeting between President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Sargsyan in Vienna was their first face-to-face encounter since the April hostilities.

The presidents agreed on following of ceasefire, as well as on “a next round of talks, to be held in June at a place to be mutually agreed, with an aim to resuming negotiations on a comprehensive settlement.”

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.