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Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Azerbaijan FM says Baku never rejected talks on resolving Nagorno-Karabakh crisis

The meeting of Azerbaijan's foreign minister and the co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the OSCE acting as mediators in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis is scheduled for mid-May

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov EPA/AHMED SAAD/POOL

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov

© EPA/AHMED SAAD/POOL

BAKU, April 29. /TASS/. The meeting of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and the co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) acting as mediators in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis is scheduled for mid-May, Azerbaijan’s top diplomat told a news conference in Baku on Friday following talks with his Maltese counterpart George Vella.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

"We are planning to meet with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in the middle of next month in one of the European cities, most likely, in Brussels," Mammadyarov said.

According to him, "the exact date and time of the meeting will be determined later." The minister noted that Azerbaijan "considers the preservation of the existing status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict unacceptable" and "has never rejected negotiations."

The situation along the line of engagement of the conflicting parties in Nagorno-Karabakh deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2. Following fierce armed clashes at the contact line, the parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce.

On April 5, Russia mediated a meeting between Colonel-General Najmeddin Sadykov, the chief of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces General Staff, and Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov, the chief of the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff, that took place in Moscow. The two sides agreed to cease the hostilities on the line disengaging the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh. The defense ministries of Azerbaijan and Armenia announced a ceasefire on the contact line as of 12:00 (11:00 Moscow Time) the same day. Ever since, the parties occasionally report brief exchanges of fire along the contact line.

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