Azerbaijan’s top diplomat calls for substantive talks on Karabakh conflict

BAKU, August 29. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has called for substantive talks on Karabakh stressing that settling the long-running conflict will ensure stability, peace and security in the region.

Mammadyarov met with his Georgian counterpart, Mikhail Janelidze in Tbilisi on Monday. "At the meeting the minister noted that Baku calls for substantive talks on changing the current status quo (in the Karabakh conflict)," the press service of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said.

The foreign minister stated that the co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) also consider that this status is "unacceptable."

"To make progress in settling the conflict, Armenia’s forces should be withdrawn from the seized Azerbaijan’s territories according to the notable resolutions of the UN Security Council and the military occupation should be brought to an end," he said.

Mammadyarov arrived in Georgia on an official visit. He is also scheduled to have talks with Georgia’s Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili and Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili.

The situation along the contact line between the conflicting parties in Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan, sharply deteriorated overnight to April 2 when fierce clashes broke out. Both parties accused each other of violating the truce. At a meeting of chiefs of General Staff of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow, an agreement on a ceasefire was reached starting from noon local time (0800GMT) on April 5. Since then, the parties have reported ceasefire violations along the contact line.

A trilateral statement adopted at the meeting of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in St. Petersburg on June 20 confirmed the parties’ commitment to normalizing the situation along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh.