Azerbaijani, Armenian presidents to discuss Karabakh issue in Munich

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev will meet in Munich on Sunday in order to discuss the Karabakh settlement.

BAKU/EREVAN, November 22 (RIA Novosti) - Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev will meet in Munich on Sunday in order to discuss the Karabakh settlement.

The presidents will meet for the sixth time since the start of the year. Their previous meeting took place on October 8, during the CIS summit in Chisinau.

The Madrid Document, which contains the basic principles of the Karabakh settlement, is expected to be the main focus of the negotiations.

Armenian Foreign Minister said on Thursday Baku had refused to discuss the Madrid principles for almost a year.

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said on Thursday Baku is expecting "honest and detailed discussions" during the presidents' meeting. He said Erevan has to change its position concerning the Karabakh issue, adding there has so far been no good progress in talks.

Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population, has been a source of conflict between the former Soviet republics since the late 1980s. The mountainous province has its own government and is de facto independent.

The war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the mountainous enclave in 1988-1994 left an estimated 35,000 people dead. Sporadic violence on the border has continued ever since.

The Madrid principles, put forward in November 2007, stipulate that the occupied Armenian territories surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic should be brought back under Azerbaijan's control. They also envisage a future referendum of self-determination in Karabakh.

The conflict is mediated by the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, comprising the U.S., Russia and France.

Turkey and Armenia signed on October 10 historic accords restoring diplomatic relations and opening borders between the two countries. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for Muslim ally Azerbaijan, following the conflict over Nagorny Karabakh between the two ex-Soviet republics.