Nagorno-Karabakh

A day after the presidents of the United States, Russia and France issued a joint statement calling for a peaceful settlement to the more than 20-year war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the two enemies publicly blamed each other Tuesday for failing to resolve the conflict.

The chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Eamon Gilmore, has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to refrain from further retaliatory measures amid a recent upsurge in violence.

Some analysts believe the recent sharp escalation of violence along the Nagorno-Karabakh contact line was specifically intended to get international mediators’ attention.

At least eight soldiers have been killed in two days of renewed fighting this week along the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan, stirring tensions just as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is visiting the region.

U.S. Ambassador Robert Bradtke says Armenia and Azerbaijan are "probably closer to an agreement than they think" in the long-standing dispute over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Bradtke, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, was speaking in an interview with RFE/RL in Washington.

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to accelerate talks aimed at settling the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian has ruled out a major role for the United Nations in efforts to end the dispute over the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh even after Azerbaijan became a member of the world body's Security Council, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

For more than a decade, Russia, the United States and various European organizations have been trying to sponsor a framework peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan that would finally settle the dispute over this mountainous enclave. But Nagorno-Karabakh itself doesn’t have a seat at the table, and its president says that must change.

International mediators will again soon visit Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh to try to salvage the stalled Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process, the French Foreign Ministry has announced.

The world powers that brought the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan together last week for talks on a thorny territorial dispute hoped they would take a crucial step toward peace. Instead, the failure to agree a blueprint for a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict appears to have brought the Caucasus neighbours one step closer to a new war in a volatile energy corridor linking the Caspian Sea region to the West.