YEREVAN (A.W.)—The Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet on Oct. 16 in Geneva, Switzerland, President Serge Sarkisian’s office and the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.
The meeting, which will take place on the initiative of the Organization for Security and Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, will come more than a year after the leaders of the two nations last met.
Last week, Minsk GroupCo-Chairs Igor Popov (Russia), Stephane Visconti (France), and Andrew Schofer (U.S.) released a statement after meeting with Sarkisian in Yerevan on Oct. 6 and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Oct. 7, stating that both presidents had confirmed their readiness to “re-engage in negotiations” for the purpose of reaching a peaceful settlement to the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh) conflict.
It was initially said that the two leaders would meet at the sidelines of the sessions of the Council of the Heads of CIS States and the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, which took place in Sochi, Russia, this week.
Just two days before the announcement of the meeting, on Oct. 11 Armenian Armed Forces serviceman Private Chaplin Margaryan (b. 1998) was killed by Azerbaijani fire in the morning. According to Armenia’s Ministry of Defense, the incident took place at a military unit in the northeast, along the Azerbaijani border.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry has described the killing of the Armenian soldier as an act of provocation ahead of the meeting between Sarkisian and Aliyev.
“Ahead of a meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, [Azeri President] Ilham Aliyev continues provocations,” ministry spokesperson Tigran Balayan said in a tweet. Earlier, President Sarkisian’s spokesperson, Vladimir Hakobyan, told Yerevan reporters that it is long known to everyone that the Azerbaijani authorities resort to provocations before high-level meetings “in an attempt to pollute the political environment.”
How can he even consider to meet aliyev when the azeri policy is to keep killing our soldiers on a weekly basis in order to keep the Artsakh issue hot on the international agenda, it shows what a weak unprincipled person serjuk is,he should have asked for cast iron guarantees with penalties attached should the azeris kill our soldiers with their aggressive actions before agreeing for any meeting. If he had an ounce of brains our country would never have been put in such a catastrophic mess.
Mihran,
If you see the middle man in the picture, then you will get the answer! And if you pay more attention then you will see they all have same colour, same design, and same manufactured shoes!
As is customary, on most evenings before these useless meetings, Azerbaijan will try a military incursion to kill a few of our soldiers. Be vigilant and retaliate 10X.