OSCE MG: Nagorno Karabakh residents should play key role in determining their region's status

PanARMENIAN.Net - The August 1 meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers in Moscow was positive, according to OSCE Minsk Group U.S. Co-chair Matthew Bryza.



"Both Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward Nalbandian told a news conference that their tete-a-tete discussion was held in a positive vein," Amb. Bryza said.



He said the Foreign Ministers agreed to continue negotiations under the aegis of the Minsk Group to bring positions of their countries' closer, as outlined in the Co-chairs' November 2007 Madrid Document, up to a final resolution.



When commenting on his Moscow statement, Bryza said the Co-chairs proceed from a starting position of recognizing Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. "To reach a political settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Armenia and Azerbaijan will eventually have to reach a compromise on NK's status. We cannot predict what that compromise will look like, or when it will emerge. But, the Co-chairs recommend that the residents of Nagorno Karabakh play a key role in determining their region's status through some type of vote in the future," he said.



The U.S. mediator supposes that the nature of referendum must be negotiated by the sides.



"Such a process can only be launched after the return of internally displaced persons and refugees and can take quite some period of time," he said, the Azeri Press Agency reports.