BAKU, May 27. /TASS/. Azerbaijan wants serious talks on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to begin the soonest possible, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday.
"I think the Vienna meeting [between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan that was mediated by foreign ministers of Russia, the United States and France as co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group] was successful. We expect that very serious, substantive, as the mediators say, which means meaningful, talks will follow soon," Aliyev said at a reception on the occasion of his country’s state holiday, the Day of the Republic, marked on May 28.
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity "is not a subject of talks," he underscored.
"This conflict is to be resolved within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. There is no other way out of it. The four United Nations Security Council’s resolutions are to be implemented," he said.
The situation along the contact line of conflicting sides in Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan, deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2 when fierce clashes began. The parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce. At a meeting of chiefs of General Staff of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow an agreement was reached on the ceasefire from noon local time on April 5. Since then, the sides have reported ceasefire violations along the contact line.
- Armenia reports calm night on contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh
- Russia plays active role in Nagorno-Karabakh settlement — ministry
- Russia to assist in Nagorno-Karabakh settlement — PM
- Armenia-Azerbaijan agreements to resolve Karabakh crisis — Russian MP
- Kremlin voices cautious optimism about Nagorno-Karabakh settlement