Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




SUPERPOWERS
Azeri, Armenian FMs in Ireland for OSCE
by Staff Writers
Dublin, Ireland (UPI) Dec 6, 2012


disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

High-level diplomatic efforts to break a deadlock in stalled negotiations over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could be on tap this week at a Dublin meeting.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian each were to be in the Irish capital Thursday for the two-day ministerial council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, where it was expected the two could meet on the sidelines.

Such a meeting would come two weeks after a new round of shuttle diplomacy facilitated by the OSCE's Minsk Group of the France, Russia and the United States failed to produce any movement in the standoff between Yerevan and Baku over the next steps to resolve tensions in the disputed enclave.

Those talks in the two capitals and in Nagorno-Karabakh saw Minsk Group Co-chairmen Robert Bradtke of the United States, Igor Popov of Russia and Jacques Faure of France meet separately with Presidents Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.

Afterward, the OSCE group issued a vague statement saying only they would continue to "further work on the level of the foreign ministers."

Bradtke told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty the shuttle round included "new ideas" which the mediators first presented to Nalbandian and Mammadyarov at a Paris meeting earlier in November -- the first high-level contact between the countries since an August scandal triggered when an Azerbaijani army officer who killed an Armenian colleague in Hungary was released from prison.

No new presidential-level meetings are currently on the agenda, Popov said, while Faure told the Azerbaijani APA news agency Nalbandian and Mammadyarov could talk again this week in Dublin at the 19th OSCE Ministerial Council.

"The bottom line is that the ministers are ready to continue working on the conflict's peaceful resolution," the French diplomat said.

The talks have remained stalled following Baku's August pardoning of Azerbaijani military officer Ramil Safarov, who had been convicted of killing of Armenian serviceman Gurgen Markaryan in Hungary eight years ago.

The Azeri courts issued a pardon for Safarov after he was extradited from Hungary, where he had been sentenced to life in prison. He was greeted by Aliyev as a national hero and promoted to major after the extradition.

That move upset Armenia and brought condemnation from the United Nations. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in September Safarov's attack on Markaryan was clearly ethnically motivated.

In last month's talks, the Minsk Group mediators voice concerns over Armenia's plans to launch commercial flights to Nagorno-Karabakh's newly reconstructed airport in Stepanakert, calling for a diplomatic solution after the move brought protests from Baku, RFE/RL reported.

Azerbaijan considers the enclave to be illegally occupied by Armenia and thus it contends flights to and from the facility would be made across its airspace without authorization, in violation of civil aviation treaties.

Agshin Mehdiyev, Baku's ambassador to the U.N., in October urged member nations not to use the airport.

"Such (flights) clearly display a manifest disregard for international law, undermine the peace process and aggravate regional security concerns," Mehdiyev said in his appeal.

.


Related Links
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








SUPERPOWERS
Clinton praises NATO's progress as she bids farewell
Brussels (AFP) Dec 05, 2012
Hillary Clinton Wednesday bade farewell to her NATO allies after making her last appearance as US Secretary of State here, praising the military alliance for having made "great strides". "I've spent a bit of my time in this building over the past four years, and I think it was time well spent," Clinton mused, speaking after two days of talks among the 28-member alliance in Brussels. "The ... read more


SUPERPOWERS
Chinese astronauts may grow veg on Moon

WSU researchers use 3-D printer to make parts from moon rock

China's Chang'e-3 to land on moon next year

Moon crater yields impact clues

SUPERPOWERS
NASA to send new rover to Mars in 2020

Safe Driving on Mars

Ancient Mars May Have Captured Enormous Floodwaters

NASA Announces Multi-Year Mars Program With New Rover In 2020

SUPERPOWERS
Civil Space 2013 Symposium

SciTechTalk: Media fixes for space junkies

NASA Voyager 1 Encounters New Region in Deep Space

Voyager discovers 'magnetic highway' at edge of solar system

SUPERPOWERS
Mr Xi in Space

China plans manned space launch in 2013: state media

China to launch manned spacecraft

Tiangong 1 Parked And Waiting As Shenzhou 10 Mission Prep Continues

SUPERPOWERS
New Crew of ISS to Perform Two Spacewalks

Space Station to reposition for science

Spacewalks on agenda for new space crew

NASA, Roscosmos Assign Veteran Crew to Yearlong Space Station Mission

SUPERPOWERS
Sea Launch Delivers the EUTELSAT 70B Spacecraft into Orbit

S. Korea readies new bid to join global space club

Arianespace Lofts Pleiades 1B Using Soyuz Medium-lift launcher

Japan Schedules Radar Satellite Launch

SUPERPOWERS
Astronomers discover and 'weigh' infant solar system

Search for Life Suggests Solar Systems More Habitable than Ours

Do missing Jupiters mean massive comet belts?

Brown Dwarfs May Grow Rocky Planets

SUPERPOWERS
Apple's CEO to bring production back to US

Judge calls for "global peace" in Apple-Samsung war

NASA Investigates Use of 'Trailblazing' Material for New Sensors

Boeing and JVC Add More Realism to Military Training Simulation




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement