Cooperation between Armenia and Azerbaijan is impossible unless the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is resolved, Azerbaijani Minister of Agriculture Ismet Abbasov told reporters on the sidelines of UN (FAO) Regional Conference for Europe and Central Asia, which kicked off in Marriott hotel, Yerevan, Armenia, on May 13.

The Minister said that despite the popular discontent in Azerbaijan, his presence at the current event is importance, since the next conference will be held in Baku in 2012.

Mr. Abbasov said that the “poverty in his country has reduced by 4 times and now makes 10-11% of the population.”

At the journalists’ request, the Azerbaijani Minister told that he was born in Yerevan and went to school here. “I last visited Armenia in December 1987. I missed Armenia during these years. With permission of President Ilham Aliyev, I visited Vardenis where my relatives used to live for many years. I think the photographs I took will be a great surprise for them,” Abbasov said in Armenian.