Armenian President Says Meeting With Azerbaijani Leader May Take Place in Fall

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said that the meeting with Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev may be held in fall, although Yerevan does not expect that any particular results would be achieved at the meeting.

YEREVAN (Sputnik) — Nevertheless, the Armenian side does not have anything against such meetings, the Armenian president noted.

"The preliminary agreement was reached when the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs were here a few weeks ago and they asked about our position on organizing a high-level meeting, we answered that we have no special expectations from such meetings, since they must be prepared in advance, and the preparatory work assumes positions on concrete proposals. There is no such work," Sargsyan told the  Armenia broadcaster.

"We are always ready for the meetings, the expectations from them are not great… This meeting may be held in the fall," Sargsyan added.

The leaders of both countries last met in June, 2016 in St. Petersburg alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin. The sides agreed that there could be no military solution to the conflict and reaffirmed their commitment to 1994 and 1995 peace agreements.

Despite the achieved agreements, a new outbreak of violence erupted earlier in the month, when Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said that the Azerbaijani village of Alkhanli was shelled, which resulted in the deaths of two people as well as the civil property damage. The unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic’s Ministry of Defense pointed out that its forces opened retaliatory fire against Azerbaijan's multiple rocket launcher firing positions, and put all the blame on Baku.

Azerbaijan's Armenian-dominated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed its independence in 1991, which led to a military conflict that resulted in Azerbaijan losing control of the region. In 1993, the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions on cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied areas, which outlined the principal of Azerbaijan's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The situation in the region is monitored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group chaired by Russia, the United States and France, within the framework of which negotiations on peace settlement has been conducted since 1992.