Armenia, Azerbaijan FMs hold first bilateral talks since 2020 war
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Saturday held their first one-on-one talks since the 2020 war between the arch-foes for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, officials said.
Held in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the talks were expected to build on an agreement the Caucasus countries’ leaders reached under EU mediation in May to “advance discussions” on a future peace treaty.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov “discussed a wide range of issues related to normalizing relations between the two countries,” the Armenian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Mirzoyan “stressed the importance of the Karabakh conflict’s political resolution for building a lasting peace in the [Caucasus] region” and called on Baku to release Armenian POWs.
The Azerbaijani foreign ministry said Bayramov demanded “the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the territory of Azerbaijan.”
He also “noted the importance of clarifying the fates of nearly 4,000 missing Azerbaijanis,” the foreign ministry in Baku said.
“The ministers pledged to continue the direct dialogue between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars – in 2020 and in the 1990s – over Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Six weeks of fighting in autumn 2020 claimed more than 6,500 lives and ended with a cease-fire agreement.
