Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend S.Ilhamgizi / On 18 September the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, received the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Ambassadors Bernard Fassier of France, Matthew Bryza of the USA and Yury Merzlyakov of Russia - as well as Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk of Poland.
They discussed the current peace talks regarding the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988 due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. Since 1992, these territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time active hostilities ended. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations