Azerbaijani president repeats demand that ethnic Armenian forces withdraw from disputed enclave
by AIDA SULTANOVA; Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Worldstream
November 9, 2004 Tuesday
BAKU, Azerbaijan — Ethnic Armenian forces must withdraw from the
disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh before Azerbaijan signs a peace
agreement with Armenia to resolve nearly a decade of tense relations,
Azerbaijan’s president said Tuesday.
Ilham Aliev also said he would not cancel an upcoming NATO-sponsored
seminar to which Armenian lawmakers have been invited, telling
journalists that Azerbaijan must not isolate itself from the
international community. Some veterans of the early 1990s war over
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, have
protested the participation of Armenian lawmakers in the Nov. 26-28
seminar in Baku.
The status of Nagorno-Karabakh has kept the two South Caucasus nations
from reaching a peace agreement since the end of open hostilities
in 1993, in which 30,000 people were killed and about one million
left homeless. The enclave has been controlled by ethnic Armenian
forces since a 1994 cease-fire and incursions and shooting breaks
out regularly, despite a buffer zone separating the two sides.
Negotiators under the auspices of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe are trying to work out a final agreement on
the enclave, but no visible progress has been made in recent years.
Speaking during a visit to Astara, south of the capital, Baku, Aliev
again hinted at military action if no negotiated solution is reached.
“We demand with justification that the seized territory be freed and
the occupation forces withdraw,” Aliev said.
Later, Aliev told residents of another southern Azeri town: “If we see
that talks and negotiations conducted within international structures
don’t give any results, then we will have to resort to other methods.”
The leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, meanwhile, said in an interview on
Armenian television Tuesday that Azerbaijan had no other option except
to negotiate a final agreement on the enclave’s status.
“As far as Azerbaijan’s readiness to negotiate over Nagorno-Karabakh
is concerned, I am convinced that it has no other option, because
the question of Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be resolved without the
participation of Karabakh residents,” Arkady Gukasyan said.
Aliev also told journalists at a later stop that he would not give
in to what he called an “uproar” over the participation of Armenia
lawmakers in the NATO seminar.
“We can’t isolate ourselves from the ongoing peace process, “Aliev
said. “We want diverse international activities to be conducted in
Azerbaijan – conferences, seminars, including those conducted by
international organizations.”
Officials at NATO’s parliamentary assembly secretariat in Brussels
have said if no Armenian delegation is allowed to attend, the seminar
will be called off.