Why didn't Armenian president meet his Azerbaijani counterpart in Astana?

The scheduled meeting between Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the OSCE summit in Astan didn't take place, Armenian and international media reported. Citing its diplomatic sources, Radio Liberty said that Azerbaijani leader changed his mind at the last moment, unable to find any explanation to the divergences between the parties' statement in Astana and his own standpoints reflected in his speech.

The participants of the OSCE summit which kicked off in Astana on Wednesday adopted a statement on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The document was signed by the heads of the co-chairing countries' delegations – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, French Prime Minister Francoise Fillon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev.

Undersigning the statement, the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders reiterated their commitment to achieve the final settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in accordance with the norms and principles of international law, the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act as well as the Russian, French and US presidents' statements made in Aquila on July 10, 2010.

During the summit in Astana, the Azerbaijani president accused Armenia of genocide and war crimes, claiming that Armenia seeks to torpedo the peace talks by conducting military trainings on the occupied territories, changing the names of towns and villages and populating the occupied areas.

Neither Armenian nor Azerbaijani sides have made any official statement or comments on the recent developments in Astana.