G8 FMs for Karabakh conflict resolution as soon as possible

PanARMENIAN.Net - G8 foreign ministers welcome the intention of Armenian and Azeri presidents to meet in the framework of the CIS informal summit session in Saint Petersburg June 9, 2007, says the statement adopted during the informal meeting in Potsdam. "We urge them to reach agreements in main principals as soon as possible, in order to open a way for peaceful solution to the conflict," says the document, Reuters reports.



Azerbaijan lost his control over Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent 7 regions during the bloody conflict, which broke out in 1990ies between Armenians and Azeris on the issue who Karabakh belongs to. In May 12, 1994 the sides signed a cease-fire and military actions stopped.



Armenia insists on pack-mode settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Meanwhile Baku accepts only step-by-step approach, which supposes first to return Azerbaijan territories under the control of the Armenian side and return refugees to those territories and then to begin negotiations over the status of Nagorno Karabakh.



The agreement on holding a meeting between the Armenian President Robert Kocharian and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliev was reached during the latest visit of OSCE MG Co-Chairs to the region.