ASSASINATIONS IN THE ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT COMPLICATED THE DIRECT TALKS OF PRESIDENTS OF ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN, HEYDAR ALIYEV’S SON SAID

25.12.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. “Before the terrorist act in the Armenian parliament the talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan were very intensive. They were direct talks without mediators, held primarily on presidential level”, the son of Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, vice-president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said today in the interview to the Russian “Moskovsky Komsomolets” paper.
I.Aliyev said that the assassinations in the Armenian parliament on October 27, 1999 “made it difficult for the talks to proceed”.
Despite the fact that after the last November 30 meeting in Minsk the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan said they were going to continue their contacts, Ilham Aliyev was quoted saying the following: “The direct talks, during which some steps were made to settle the conflict, are interrupted at present – either due to interference of some other parties or due to the assassinations in the Armenian parliament”. -0-