Sarkisian, Aliyev Meet in Bern, As Fighting Continued

Presidents Sarkisian and Aliyev, with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen in Bern, Switzerland

BERN, Switzerland”“Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met on Saturday in another effort by the OSCE Minsk Group to mediate a resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as fighting escalated overnight on the Karabakh-Azerbaijan border.

Attending the talks were the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov, Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov (Russia), James Warlick (USA), Pierre Andrieu (France) and the Personal Representative of the OCSE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk. Later the Presidents talked face-to-face.

The meeting focused on steps targeted at easing tensions in the conflict zone and opportunities of furthering the conflict resolution process.

Shortly after the meeting, Nalbandian talked to reporters saying that while there was a need to continue meetings on the presidential level, however, this particular meeting in Berne “was dictated because of the the escalation of the situation, Azerbaijani-initiated provocations and gross ceasefire violations. And it is clear that when we have such a situation, other issues become secondary,”