Caucasus: Council of Europe discusses Karabakh conflict

The Ministers Council of the Council of Europe met in Strasbourg on 23 January to assess the Armenian and Azerbaijani commitments to their respective pledges to work for a peaceful solution of the Karabakh conflict, according to Turan on 24 January and other Azerbaijani media cited by Groong. Those sources reported that the participants considered "shallow" a report delivered by the U.S., French, and Russian co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group that focused on the anticipated impact on the mediation process of the upcoming Armenian and Azerbaijani presidential elections. The co-chairmen left the session without hearing statements by the deputy foreign ministers of the two countries, Tatul Markarian and Araz Azimov. The Armenian Foreign Ministry announced on 21 January that in their capacity as representatives of their countries' presidents, the two deputy foreign ministers would continue their talks on approaches to resolving the Karabakh conflict, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. It is not clear, however, whether such talks took place. LF