Germany is hosting two days of peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia five months after Azerbaijan recaptured its Karabakh region from its ethnic Armenian majority, prompting a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians.
Azerbaijan has been increasingly hostile to outside involvement in brokering an agreement, with President Ilham Aliyev accusing the United States of jeopardising relations by siding with Armenia.
In December, the South Caucasus neighbours issued a joint statement saying they want to reach a peace deal.
Christian Armenia and mostly Muslim Azerbaijan first went to war over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1988.
After decades of enmity, Azerbaijan in September recaptured Karabakh, controlled by its ethnic Armenian majority since the 1990s despite being internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
The offensive prompted most of the region’s 120,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to neighbouring Armenia.
The United States, the European Union and Russia have all tried for decades to mediate between the two side
