Armenia-Azerbaijan summit conducive to settling dispute

The upcoming meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents can be a stimulus for the peaceful settlement of a long-standing territorial dispute, a U.S. security envoy said Friday. "There is no alternative to the peaceful settlement of the (Nagorno-Karabagh) conflict based on negotiations," Daniel Baer, U.S. representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), was quoted as saying by Armenia's Armenpress news agency. Baer was speaking at an OSCE's Permanent Council meeting in Vienna. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bitter dispute over the mountainous region, which Armenian-backed forces seized in 1991. The two sides have been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group since 1994. Earlier this month, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, agreed to meet in November over the Nagorno-Karabagh dispute.