Azerbaijan's head expects serious talks on Nagorno-Karabakh to begin soon

Azerbaijan wants serious talks on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to begin the soonest possible, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday, Tass reports.

"I think the Vienna meeting [between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan that was mediated by foreign ministers of Russia, the United States and France as co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group] was successful. We expect that very serious, substantive, as the mediators say, which means meaningful, talks will follow soon," Aliyev said at a reception on the occasion of his country’s state holiday, the Day of the Republic, marked on May 28th.

Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity "is not a subject of talks," he underscored.

"This conflict is to be resolved within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. There is no other way out of it. The four United Nations Security Council’s resolutions are to be implemented," he said.

Recall, on the night of April 2 all frontier positions of Azerbaijan were exposed to heavy fire from large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and guns. In addition, Azerbaijani settlements near the front line, densely populated by civilians, were shelled.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US, are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.