Armenian-Azerie Dialog

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Agence France Presse

November 17, 2000, Friday 11:16 AM, Eastern Time

Armenian, Azerbaijani religious leaders to meet in Moscow

MOSCOW, Nov 17

 

Armenian and Azerbaijani religious leaders will meet in Moscow later this

month under the Russian patriarchy's mediation, the ITAR-Tass news agency

reported Friday.

 

Armenia's Catholicos Karekin II and Azerbaijan's Sheikh Allakhshukur

*****zade will meet on November 29 in Moscow's Saint Daniel monastery,

Russian Patriarch Alexy II said.

 

"The goal of this meeting is to find ways to overcome the hostility between

the two nations," Alexy said as quoted by ITAR-Tass.

 

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in an undeclared state of war since the

late 1980s over control of Nagorno-Artsax, a mountainous enclave

inhabited by Armenians but located within Azerbaijan.

 

Alexy II reminded reporters of a similar meeting between religious heads of

the two Caucasian states, which was organized by the Russian Church at the

height of the Nagorno-Artsax military conflict.

 

"That meeting proved that spiritual leaders may show the temporal

authorities how to handle ethnic conflict peacefully," the patriarch said.

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NATO chief praises Putin for effort to solve Artsax conflict

 

Associated Press Newswires

01/17/2001

 

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - NATO Secretary-General George Robertson praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for offering to redouble efforts to resolve the more than decade-old conflict around the separatist Nagorno-Artsax region.

 

"Traditionally, Russia has been more identified with the Armenian point of view. But by coming here and having substantive

discussions with President Aliev, it appears that he has indicated that they will help look for a solution to the Nagorno-Artsax

conflict," Robertson said after meeting Tuesday night with Azerbaijani President Geidar Aliev.

 

The ethnic Armenian-majority Nagorno-Artsax enclave declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1988, igniting a war that killed an estimated 15,000 people and drove about 1 million from their homes.

 

A truce signed in 1994 ended the war, but sporadic clashes continue, and international mediators have been trying unsuccessfully for years to negotiate a political solution between the two former Soviet republics.

 

On a two-day visit to Baku last week, Putin said that Russia had offered to step up its mediating effort between Armenia and

Azerbaijan. He tried to allay fears in Azerbaijan that Russia favors Armenia's side in the dispute, as the Kremlin tries to

increase its clout in the Caucasus region.

 

On Tuesday, in the Armenian capital Yerevan, Robertson had warned that instability in the Caucasus region - particularly the Nagorno-Artsax dispute - was frightening off investors.

 

Robertson said he told Aliev that both he and Putin agreed that the conflict "must be resolved and can only be resolved by the two

countries."