Armenia To Hold Talks With Azerbaijan On Nagorno-Karabakh

Despite a truce, Armenia and Azerbaijan remain in a state of war (file photo) (CTK) 10 January 2006 -- Armenia's Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian today said President Robert Kocharian would meet with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev next month for talks on ways to solve the 18-year-old Nagorno-Karabakh separatist conflict.

Oskanian also said he would meet with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on 17-18 January in London.

There was no immediate confirmation from Azerbaijan.

Predominantly-ethnic Armenian Karabakh forcibly seceded from Soviet Azerbaijan in 1988, triggering a war that claimed some 30,000 lives and drove more than 800,000 people from their homes. Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a truce in 1994, but remain formally at war.

Oskanian today expressed hope that 2006 would bring substantial progress in the negotiation process.

France, Russia, and the United States -- which mediate in the peace talks on behalf of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe -- have expressed similar optimism.

(AFP/AP/Novosti-Armenia)