Armenian President Visits Breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian (center) visited army units in Nagorno-Karabakh on November 12.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian is visiting Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian press service said on November 12 that Sarkisian would inspect the military forces of the self-proclaimed republic.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which local Armenian separatists, backed by Yerevan, seized from Azerbaijan during a devastating war in the 1990s.

Last week, Sarkisian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, agreed to meet later this month to resume talks on Nagorno-Karabakh.

Aliyev is currently in Turkey, where, among other issues, he is expected to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh with Turkish officials.

Last week, Turkey's Foreign Ministry stated that it will open its border with Armenia -- closed by Ankara in the early 1990s -- only if Yerevan ends its occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Azerbaijani districts.

Based on reporting by News.am and Interfax