Karabakh Mediators Meet With Armenian Officials

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan will never surrender territory (AFP)

2 February 2006 -- International mediators are meeting with Armenian officials today ahead of next week's Armenian-Azerbaijani summit on the status of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Diplomats from Russia, France, and the United States -- the co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Minsk Group -- traveled to Yerevan for talks today after visiting the Azerbaijani capital Baku on 1 February .

Predominantly ethnic Armenian Karabakh seceded from Soviet Azerbaijan in 1988, triggering a six-year war that ended with an uneasy truce. The conflict claimed some 30,000 lives and drove nearly 1 million people out of their homes.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Robert Kocharian are scheduled to meet in France on 10-11 February.

In an address published in state newspapers on 1 February, Aliyev said his country would never compromise on its territory.

(AP)