Azerbaijani and Armenian FMs to discuss liberation of Lachin and Kalbajar regions in Almaty - UPDATE

At a meeting to be held on the sidelines of the OSCE Foreign Ministers Council session in Almaty, Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers will discuss liberation of Azerbaijan’s Armenia-occupied Lachin and Kalbajar regions at the first stage, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists today. 

"The meeting will be held on July 16 or 17. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have not named  specific dates yet," he added. 

Mammadyarov said the negotiations are continuing with the Armenian side on the basis of the updated Madrid Principles. "We have repeatedly discussed some of these principles in the past six years and now it makes no sense to go back to them," Mammadyarov added.

At a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan in January in Sochi, the OSCE Minsk Group presented the parties with an updated version of the Madrid document, which is the basis for today's talks.

Baku, adopting the Madrid principles, has not yet received information from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on Yerevan's position on those principles. According to Mammadyarov, the Almaty talks will mainly focus on liberation of Lachin and Kalbajar regions of Azerbaijan along with liberation of other regions in the "5 +2" format.

"Historically, the Lachin and Kalbajar regions have never been part of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Today, the matter is the liberation of these two regions," Mammadyarov noted.

He said the return of the remaining five regions have already been resolved and will be no longer discussed.

Regarding status of the Nagorno-Karabakh, Mammadyarov noted that the Armenian side stand for holding a referendum, but Azerbaijan's position is that the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh must take part in the voting together with the Armenians.

Mammadyarov said a special committee of representatives from Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries will be set up under the principles that are now being discussed between the parties. The committee will develop questions of the referendum ballots. However, this is possible only after the return of IDPs to the Nagorno-Karabakh, he said.


/Trend/