Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. E.Huseynli / An agreement on the meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian communities' heads regarding the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has been achieved, Nizami Bahmanov, the head of the Public Union of Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh, said on 7 September.
International organizations, as well as the co-chairmen of the OSCE's Minsk Group are taking the appropriate measures to implement the meeting.
"First of all, Azerbaijanis must return back to their occupied territories, only after this may the country hold negotiations concerning the status of Nagorno-Karabakh," Bahmanov said.
The Minsk Group was founded for peaceful resolving of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh with the participation of ten countries in 1992. Representatives of three countries, the US, Russia, and France have been operating the Minsk Group since 1997.
Meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities may provide a positive affect on settling the conflict.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenia has occupied 20% of Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.