Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 24 / Trend , M.Aliyev /
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov has today stated that no step forward was taken to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after the Kazan meeting.
"Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has recently met with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in New-York, but I do not believe that any progress will be achieved. As the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs understand that Armenia should change its position," he told journalists.
Presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev, Dmitry Medvedev and Serzh Sargsyan, met in Kazan on June 24. The meeting, which was the ninth over the last three years, ended without reaching an agreement on the basic principles, but the sides mentioned the progress towards this goal.
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.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.