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Baku Will Not Consider Including Nagorno-Karabakh in Negotiations Process

Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict Materials 18 January 2008 14:02 (UTC +04:00)
Baku Will Not Consider Including Nagorno-Karabakh in Negotiations Process

Azerbaijan, Baku, 18 January / Trend corr. J.Babayeva / Baku will not consider including Nagorno-Karabakh in the negotiations process, Khazar Ibrahim, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Press Secretary, stated to Trend on 18 January.

"This issue has not been included in the document, which is on the table of discussions," Ibrahim said.

OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs submitted written proposals to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministries in December. Bernard Fassier, the France Co-chair OSCE Minsk Group, mentioned the discussions held in Yerevan to include Nagorno-Karabakh in the negotiations process.

Nizami Bahmanov, the head of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, expressed his disagreement with the statement concerning the inclusion of Nagorno-Karabakh to the negotiation process.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988, due to the Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, the Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven neighbouring districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement which ended the active hostilities. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding the peaceful negotiations.

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