Press TV, Iran
Nov 2 2008
Armenia, Azerbaijan call for peace
Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:58:55 GMT
Armenia and Azerbaijan agree to ‘activate’ efforts to resolve a
decades-long conflict over a disputed territory, a joint declaration
says.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh
Sarkisian signed the declaration on Sunday, calling for a peaceful
resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh dispute.
"¦[Both sides] continue their work… to agree on a political
settlement to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict," the declaration said.
The decision was reached during a meeting near Moscow hosted by
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has been pushing for a peace
pact to end the long-simmering conflict since October.
The leaders also urged their foreign ministers to "activate" efforts
in the negotiating process.
Both Azerbaijan and Armenia claim the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh,
which has a population mostly of Armenians but is located within
Azerbaijan.
Ethnic Armenian forces took control of the Nagorno-Karabakh along with
seven surrounding regions during a war in the early 1990s. The war
left thousands killed and forced nearly a million people on both sides
to flee their homes.
A ceasefire was signed in 1994 but the dispute has so far remained
unsettled. Clashes often erupt along the ceasefire line and
negotiations have so far proved fruitless.
Armenian and Azerbaijani troops based in the region continue sporadic
exchanges of fire.
The US also proposed peace talks recently, promising to step-up its
efforts to help secure a pact. Washington also echoed Moscow’s hints
that the region must avoid a recurring of the August war with Georgia
over similar disputes.
The meeting, which took place at Medvedev’s residence, Meiendorf
Castle, lasted less than three hours.