Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 May /corr. Trend M.Aliyev / Finland, as a Country chairing OSCE, hopes that the next meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in St-Petersburg will yield positive results in the process of peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "We hope that the upcoming meeting of the Presidents will obtain certain results on important moments," the Presidents of Finland, TarjaHalonen, said to the joint press-conference with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, who is on an official visit to Finland, in Helsinki on 29 May.
"We support mediation mission of the OSCE, and I consider that the sides should provide support in this regard," Halonen said, answering the question on Finland's contribution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.
Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan supports peaceful settlement of the conflict within territorial integrity of the Country and norms of international law.
The first meeting of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and newly elected President of Armenia, Serj Sarkisyan, is supposed to take place on 7 June in St-Petersburg.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries appeared in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani lands including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. Since 1992 to the present time, these territories have been under Armenian occupation. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are holding peaceful negotiations.
Finland has been chairing the OSCE since 2008.