Armenia, Azerbaijan begin first high-level talks on Karabakh since clashes
Updated 22:43, 09-Oct-2020
CGTN
Foreign ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan sit at a round table in Moscow, October 9, 2020. /Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's Facebook

Foreign ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan sit at a round table in Moscow, October 9, 2020. /Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's Facebook

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Friday that Baku was giving Armenia a "last chance" to peacefully resolve their conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, as talks between the two sides began in Moscow. 

"We are giving Armenia a chance to settle the conflict peacefully. This is their last chance," Aliyev said in a televised address to the nation as the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers began Russian-mediated talks. 

"We will return our lands in any case. This is their historic chance," he said. 

Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday began their first high-level talks after nearly two weeks of clashes over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. 

"It has begun," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Facebook, posting a picture of the foreign ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan sitting at a round table in Moscow. 

With President Vladimir Putin calling for a halt to military actions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Kremlin extended the invitation to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on Friday. 

"Baku and Yerevan confirmed their participation in talks in Moscow. Active preparation is underway," Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said. 

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"Following a series of telephone discussions between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the president of Russia calls for a halt to military actions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," the Kremlin said in a statement released on Thursday.

The announcement marks the first result in international efforts to try to pause fighting which has killed at least 400 people since it broke out on September 27. 

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The continued fighting and rising tension underlined the difficulties facing U.S., Russian and French officials meeting in Geneva to try to bring the warring sides to the negotiating table.

Washington, Paris and Moscow are co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Minsk Group that has led mediation over Nagorno-Karabakh since 1992.