Statement of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev after the tete-a-tete meeting with the President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan - September 7, 2000


This is a regular meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents. You know that the direct dialogue was established at the beginning of the last year and continues to this day. Today, I can personally say that it is useful and important. Despite the fact that the time which has passed was enough for coming to an agreement, unfortunately, we could not achieve it.

But the positive point is that we discuss various options and establish mutual understanding and trust. We base ourselves on the fact that the conflict should be solved peacefully and the return to military action, large or even small is unacceptable. Secondly, in order to achieve practical results, we need compromises.

We talk about it each time, but still I cannot say that we were able to agree on a compromise. We have already decided that we need to make mutual compromises. But on the other hand, we did not agree on the level of these compromises and the spheres that they should be applied.

President Robert Kocharyan and I have agreed to continue this dialogue. But of course, we shall use all other possibilities, including the possibilities of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group to find a solution. My personal position is that history has assigned to us a very important mission - to settle the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and to achieve peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It will be a very important factor for the establishment of complete peace and stability in the Southern Caucasus. It will bring the greatest benefit for the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

We have agreed to continue in this direction.