VArmenia and Azerbaijan were unable to come to an agreement on the path to peace in Nagorny Karabakh after a meeting in Russia’s Kazan on Friday, but said some progress had been made.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosted Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev of in the Volga city of Kazan for talks on a settlement to the two-decade conflict over Nagorny Karabakh.
“The heads of states confirmed mutual understanding on the range of issues that contribute to the creation of the conditions for approving the major principles [of the Karabakh settlement],” a joint statement said.
The outcome of the summit was predictable,” Russian political analyst Alexei Vlasov told RIA Novosti. “But the most important factor for a solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict…is how much the sides listen to Russia.”
Nagorny Karabakh, a breakaway region on Azerbaijani territory with a predominantly ethnic Armenian population, has been at the center of a bitter conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
It has remained under Armenian control since the late 1980s, when the region claimed independence from Azerbaijan to join Armenia. The conflict is estimated to have left more than 30,000 people dead on both sides between 1988 and 1994.