Details added (first version posted on 12:29)
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 18
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
The Vienna meeting between presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a very positive fact, Malena Mard, head of the EU delegation in Azerbaijan, told reporters in Baku May 18.
The EU supports the decision to hold a variety of events, investigation of accidents, planning a road map for comprehensive peace negotiations, as well as planning a second meeting in the near future, said Mard.
She added that there is no military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The conflict must be resolved through peaceful negotiations, and the presidents, as well as the co-chairs play the main role in them, said Mard.
As is known, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini earlier met with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, said Mard.
While in Azerbaijan in February, Mogherini said she would personally deal with this conflict and that she wanted to become a partner of the OSCE Minsk Group in this issue, Mard added.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
On May 16, a meeting was held in Vienna, with participation of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, French Minister of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, and special representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office Andrzej Kasprzyk.