Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov will travel to Venice on Saturday to discuss with co-chairmen of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk group situation in Nagorny Karabakh, a spokesman for the ministry said.
A long-standing dispute over Nagorny Karabakh, a breakaway region inside Azerbaijan with a predominantly ethnic Armenian population, has been a sticking point in relations between the two South Caucasus states.
A similar visit with the same agenda paid by Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nabaldnyan took place on May 12 in Brussels.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since a brutal war between the two countries over the disputed enclave in early 1990s, which claimed more than 30,000 lives on both sides. Karabakh has since remained under Armenian control. Baku has fiercely opposed any decision on Karabakh that could be interpreted as giving the region independence from Azerbaijan.
The Azerbaijani minister will discuss with co-chairmen of the group from Russia, the United States and France implementation of the Madrid principles.
The OSCE Madrid principles, adopted in November 2007, envisage a stage-by-stage resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict that should start with the gradual liberation of parts of Azerbaijan bordering Karabakh that were partly or fully occupied by Karabakh Armenian forces during the 1991-94 war. In return, Karabakh should retain a corridor to Armenia and be able to determine its final status in a future referendum.
In January, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed a preamble to an agreement on Nagorny Karabakh, revising and updating the Madrid principles.
BAKU, June 5 (RIA Novosti)
