Russia, Saint-Petersburg / Тrend corr R. Aghayev / The meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents scheduled to 9 June, at the Palace of Constantine in Saint-Petersburg will be held beyond closed doors. The Presidents will speak to press after the meeting, the representatives of the Press Service of the Armenian President in Saint-Petersburg reported to journalists on 8 June. Armenian leader, Robert Kocharyan, will arrive in Saint-Petersburg on 9 June to participate in the 11th international economic forum.
The meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents, in which methods for peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be discussed, will be the first this year. Earlier, Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharyan held talks in Belarus, Romania, and France. The talks were fruitless.
The representative of the Press Service, who preferred to remain anonymous, reported that Kocharyan will arrive in Saint-Petersburg in the morning of 9 June and the meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, will take place in the second half of the day. The leaders will discuss the course of the negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Presidents are likely to comment on the summit schedule on 10 June.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus appeared in 1988 due to the territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has occupied 20% of Azerbaijani lands, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven regions surrounding it. Since 1992 until today, these territories have been under the occupation of Armenian forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire agreement which put an end to the active hostilities. The Co-Chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and US) are still holding peaceful negotiations.
On 4-5 June the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Miguel Angel Moratinos, visited Baku and Yerevan in the interest of a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Co-Chairmen of the Minsk Group visited the region twice within the last fifteen days.