Armenia, Azerbaijan hold Swiss talks on Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is holding a private meeting with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargysan in Bern, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick tweeted on Dec.19.

The head of state then met with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

The last meeting between the Azerbaijani & Armenian presidents happened in Paris on October 27, 2014 OSCE mediators just lately warned in that “the status quo has become unsustainable” over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians, has run its own affairs with heavy military and financial backing from Armenia since a separatist war ended in 1994.

BERLIN (AP) — The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan have met in Switzerland to discuss their long-running dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan maintained Armenia had first fired mortar rounds at settlements in Azerbaijan.

“The South Caucasus is a priority region of Switzerland’s peace-policy commitment”, Burkhalter’s office said after the meeting concluded.

During the meeting of the foreign ministers of both countries held with the mediation of the Minsk Group co-chairs in NY in September of this year, as well as the December session of the OSCE ministerial council in Belgrade the Armenian side again violated the ceasefire on the contact line and along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Safety & Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group have been additionally in Bern for the presidents’ meeting.

The Azerbaijani defence ministry meanwhile said Friday that at least four Azerbaijani soldiers were killed this month in clashes with Armenians.