The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in the Czech capital Thursday to seek solutions to a two-decade territorial conflict between their countries, officials said, according to AP. Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan, has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since a six-year conflict that killed about 30,000 and displaced 1 million people before a truce was reached in 1994. Turkey closed the border in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan during its conflict with Armenia over the region. Turkey backs Azerbaijan's claims to Nagorno-Karabakh, which has a high number of ethnic Armenian residents but is located within Azerbaijan's borders. Presidents Serge Sarkisian of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan met at the residence of the U.S. ambassador as Washington and other governments push for a solution. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently encouraged Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the dispute when she held separate meetings with them in Washington. The U.S. Embassy said in a statement the two presidents discussed the issue as part of international mediation efforts led by the United States, Russia and France. Both presidents were in Prague to attend a summit Thursday at which the European Union planned to offer aid and trade accords to six ex-Soviet republics to ease Moscow's hold over them.
