Armenian President Starts Two-Day Visit To Karabakh

YEREVAN -- Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has started a two-day visit to Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

Accompanied by Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian, Sarkisian arrived in Karabakh on October 21.

Officials said the two men, both natives of Karabakh, proceeded to undisclosed sections of the main Armenian-Azerbaijani Line of Contact immediately after being greeted by Karabakh leader Bako Sahakian.

Sarkisian, who commanded Karabakh-Armenian forces in 1992-93, also attended the inauguration of a new apartment building in the southern Hadrut district for army officers and their families.

He then met in Stepanakert with senior officers of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army.

Neither Sarkisian nor Sahakian made any public statements.

Sarkisian's trip came two weeks after he held fresh talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of a CIS summit in Chisinau, Moldova.

International mediators present at the talks said the two leaders moved closer to overcoming their differences over a framework peace accord put forward by the OSCE Minsk Group.