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Baku remains cold to French leader’s offer of Azerbaijan-Armenia summit

Azerbaijani FM Elmar Mamedyarov said earlier that Baku was waiting for concrete proposals following Hollande’s initiative to arrange a new meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan

Armenia's Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan EPA/FABIO CAMPANA

Armenia's Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan

© EPA/FABIO CAMPANA

YEREVAN, June 23. /ITAR-TASS/. French President Francois Hollande’s offer to arrange a meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Paris was more than concrete, but Baku did not agree with it, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan said on Monday, June 23.

THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began on February 22, 1988. On November 29, 1989 direct rule in Nagorno-Karabakh was ended and Azerbaijan regained control of the region. However, later a joint session of the Armenian parliament and the top legislative body of Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.

On December 10, 1991, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh held a referendum, boycotted by local Azeris, which approved the creation of an independent state.

The struggle over Nagorno-Karabakh escalated after both Armenia and Azerbaijan obtained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. By the end of 1993, the conflict had caused thousands of casualties and created hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides. An unofficial ceasefire was reached on May 12, 1994.

As of August, 2008, the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group were attempting to negotiate a full settlement of the conflict. On August 2, 2008, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan travelled to Moscow for talks with Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russian president at the time. As a result, the three presidents signed an agreement that calls for talks on a political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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Sergey Lavrov Armenia Azerbaijan France Francois Hollande

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