FRANCE-HOLLANDE/ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN France hosts talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Record ID: 218540

  • Title: FRANCE-HOLLANDE/ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN France hosts talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan
  • Date: 28th October 2014
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (OCTOBER 27, 2014) (AGENCY POOL) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, SERZH SARGSYAN, ARRIVING AT ELYSEE PALACE, SHAKING HANDS WITH FRENCH PRESIDENT, FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, / HOLLANDE, SARGSYAN GOING INSIDE BUILDING ELYSEE PALACE ENTRY HOLLANDE AT ENTRANCE HOLLANDE GREETING AZERBAIJAN'S PRESIDENT, ILHAM ALIYEV, BOTH ENTERING BUILDING MEET
  • Embargoed: 12th November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA61Y22Q21VGBQKM9MWPETI2IIV
  • Story Text: Armenian and Azeri leaders have agreed to pursue talks over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region after resuming direct contacts at a meeting in Paris on Monday (October 27), the French government said.
    The two leaders agreed to exchange information about people who have gone missing in the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, Hollande's office said.
    The escalation of tensions near the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in early August, which led to violent clashes and the deaths of at least 15 soldiers, highlighted the risk of broader conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave of Azerbaijan with a majority ethnic Armenian population, and the wider South Caucasus area where vital oil and natural gas flow from the Caspian region to Europe.
    Fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh first erupted in 1991, when the Soviet Union broke up.
    A ceasefire was called in 1994 after more than 30,000 people were killed in the fighting.
    The two sides have regularly traded accusations of further violence around the region and along the Azeri-Armenian border.
    The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan "have agreed to continue the dialogue, in particular with a new meeting in September 2015 in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York," Hollande's office said.
    Energy-producing Azerbaijan, host to oil majors including BP, Chevron and Exxon Mobil, frequently threatens to take Nagorno-Karabakh back by force and is spending heavily on its armed forces.
    Russia, like France, is one of the sponsors of international efforts to find a solution to the conflict.
    In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin had hosted a meeting between the two heads of state, after more than a dozen people were killed in clashes.
    The meeting had given him a chance to play a peacekeeping role in the former Soviet Union at a time when the West is accusing Moscow of backing pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
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