YEREVAN (A.W.)—The Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet on Oct. 16 in Geneva, Switzerland, President Serge Sarkisian’s office and the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.
The Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet on Oct. 16 in Geneva, Switzerland, President Serge Sarkisian’s office and the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry announced on Friday (Photo: Civilnet)
The meeting, which will take place on the initiative of the Organization for Security and Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, will come more than a year after the leaders of the two nations last met.
Last week, the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group—Igor Popov (Russia), Stephane Visconti (France), and Andrew Schofer (U.S.)—released a statement after meeting with Sarkisian in Yerevan on Oct. 6 and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Oct. 7, which affirmed that both Presidents had confirmed their readiness to “reengage in negotiations” with the purpose of reaching a peaceful settlement to the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh) conflict.
It was initially said that the two leaders would meet at the sidelines of the sessions of the Council of the Heads of CIS States and the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, which took place in Sochi, Russia this week.
Just two days before the announcement of the meeting, of Oct. 11, Armenian Armed Forces serviceman Private Chaplin Margaryan (b. 1998) was killed by Azerbaijani fire on the morning. According to Armenia’s Ministry of Defense, the incident took place at a military unit located in the northeastern direction along the Azerbaijani border.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry has described the killing of the Armenian soldier as an act of provocation ahead of a meeting between Armenian President Serge Sarkisian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
“Ahead of a meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, [Azeri President] Ilham Aliyev continues provocations,” ministry spokesperson Tigran Balayan said in a tweet. Earlier, President Sarkisian’s spokesperson, Vladimir Hakobyan, told Yerevan reporters that it has long been known to everyone that the Azerbaijani authorities resort to provocations before high-level meetings “in an attempt to pollute the political environment.”
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Source: Armenian Weekly
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