Azeri official rules Turkey in but Karabakh out of talks on Karabakh
ANS TV, Baku
8 Oct 04
[Presenter] The Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Yuriy
Merzlyakov, has stressed the importance of Turkey’s involvement in the
settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. At the same time, Yuriy
Merzlyakov insists on the participation of Nagornyy Karabakh as a
party in the talks.
[Correspondent] A lasting solution to the Nagornyy Karabakh problem
cannot be practically found without Turkey’s involvement, the Russian
co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Yuriy Merzlyakov, said in an
interview with the Armenian Regnum news agency.
[Passage omitted: Merzlyakov on criticism of the Minsk Group]
Merzlyakov said once again that one could not expect the co-chairmen
to come up with a secret settlement formula. In his opinion, the
problem cannot be resolved without agreement in principle between the
parties to the conflict.
Mr Merzlyakov said that the next visit by [OSCE] co-chairmen to the
region would depend on the presidents of the two countries [Azerbaijan
and Armenia]. He did not rule out that the visit could take place
before the end of this year.
In his interview, the Russian co-chairman said once again that
Nagornyy Karabakh should be involved in peace talks as an independent
party. Many issues could not be discussed and resolved without
Nagornyy Karabakh’s participation, end of quote.
Commenting on Yuriy Merzlyakov’s statements, the head of the
international relations department at the presidential administration,
Novruz Mammadov, said that Azerbaijan wanted Turkey to be involved in
the peace talks. This country could play a pivotal role in the
settlement of the conflict. We take this into consideration and we
have said on many occasions that Turkey could join in the
negotiations, end of quote.
However, Mr Mammadov noted that the Russian co-chairman’s opinion that
Nagornyy Karabakh should take part in the talks was not real. Azerbaijan
is not going to talk to separatists.