Armenia and Azerbaijan to Hold Peace Settlement Talks in Washington on Sunday

File photo: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C) meets with an Armenian delegation including Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (L) and a delegation with Azerbaijan including Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in New York, New York, US, 19 September 2022. (EPA)
File photo: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C) meets with an Armenian delegation including Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (L) and a delegation with Azerbaijan including Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in New York, New York, US, 19 September 2022. (EPA)
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Armenia and Azerbaijan to Hold Peace Settlement Talks in Washington on Sunday

File photo: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C) meets with an Armenian delegation including Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (L) and a delegation with Azerbaijan including Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in New York, New York, US, 19 September 2022. (EPA)
File photo: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C) meets with an Armenian delegation including Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (L) and a delegation with Azerbaijan including Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in New York, New York, US, 19 September 2022. (EPA)

Armenia and Azerbaijan will hold a new round of talks in Washington on Sunday to try to normalize relations, the spokesperson of Armenia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Tensions have been rising again between the two countries over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, where Russian peacekeepers were deployed in 2020 to end a war, the second that Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought over the enclave since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Reuters said.

The mountain region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

"From April 30 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will be in Washington DC on a working visit. The next round of discussions on the agreement on normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan is scheduled," the spokesperson, Ani Badalyan, said on her official Facebook page.

There was no immediate confirmation of the meeting by Azerbaijan.

Despite years of attempted mediation between them, Armenia and Azerbaijan have yet to reach a peace agreement that would settle outstanding issues such as the demarcation of borders and return of prisoners.

Azerbaijan set up a new checkpoint last Sunday on the road to Karabakh, the Lachin corridor, in a move that Armenia called a gross violation of a 2020 ceasefire.



Turkish Ski Resort Fire Kills 66, Forces Guests to Jump from Windows

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a hotel in the ski resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. REUTERS/Mert Ozkan
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a hotel in the ski resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. REUTERS/Mert Ozkan
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Turkish Ski Resort Fire Kills 66, Forces Guests to Jump from Windows

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a hotel in the ski resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. REUTERS/Mert Ozkan
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a hotel in the ski resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. REUTERS/Mert Ozkan

A fire at a ski resort hotel in Türkiye's Bolu mountains killed 66 people on Tuesday and forced panicked guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night, Reuters reported.

Some 51 people were injured, Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu said at the Kartalkaya ski resort in northwest Türkiye.

The blaze began around 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on the restaurant floor of the 11-storey Grand Kartal Hotel, authorities said earlier.

Several fire engines surrounded the charred building, with white bed sheets tied together and dangling from one upper-floor window where guests attempted to flee.