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)
RFE/RL Caucasus Report
RFE/RL Caucasus Report
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