Armenia Sees 'Positive Shift' On Karabakh

Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian says upcoming talks in Geneva should cause "a positive shift" toward settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported.

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan are due to meet in Geneva on March 13-14.

Speaking at a press conference in Yerevan, Oskanian said the OSCE Minsk Group of international mediators wants the foreign ministers to prepare the ground for a meeting between Armenian President Robert Kocharian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, in May.

"They want the presidents to meet as soon as possible after the parliamentary elections [in Armenia on May 12]," Oskanian said. "Because of this they want some progress at the ministerial level before the presidents meet."

The predominantly ethnic-Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan's borders. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over the enclave from 1988 until a 1994 cease-fire.