Azeri foreign minister asks mediators to specify Karabakh compromises
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
27 Jul 04
[Presenter] Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov insisted
during his visit to Washington that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen
specify their position on the Karabakh settlement. He said that
although the co-chairmen call on the conflicting sides to make
compromises, the Baku government still does not know what they are all
about.
[Correspondent over video of Mammadyarov] The Baku government has
asked the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen to clarify what compromises
they are calling for. Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijan would not
compromise on one issue – its territorial integrity.
[Mammadyarov speaking to journalists] What these compromises are all
about, we cannot understand precisely. Truth to tell, when I was in
Washington and discussed this issue with [US co-chairman of the OSCE
Minsk Group] Steven Mann, he said the same thing about the
compromises. I said, you know, territorial integrity is very important
for Azerbaijan. Please specify what compromises you are talking about
outside this issue. Now we are waiting, let them clarify it. Then we
can say what compromises we can make.
[Correspondent] Mammadyarov also spoke about the Austrian state
printing company printing the Karabakh separatists’ currency. He said
that the government is seriously dealing with this issue.
[Mammadyarov] We are examining this because, you know, the Foreign
Ministry, cannot take a decision immediately. Of course, we have to
examine and we are seriously dealing with this issue at the moment.
[Correspondent] As for missing officer Firuz Qasimov who represented
our country at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Mammadyarov said
that nothing is known about his fate yet. But Mammadyarov said that
criminal proceedings have been instituted into the case at the
Azerbaijani Prosecutor-General’s Office. In addition, he said that our
embassy in Belgium and the Belgian Foreign Ministry are in control of
this affair on a daily basis.
Farida Agaverdiyeva and Dilqam Mirzayev for “Son Xabar”.