AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT STATES PRINCIPLES OF KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 4 2007

BAKU, May 4 (Itar-Tass) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has
stated principles of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
the talks on which with Armenia are in progress.

"A principal demand consists in that all seven occupied areas of
Azerbaijan, including Kelbadzharsky and Lachinsky, must be freed,"
he said at the opening of a settlement for refugees in a suburb of
Baku on Friday.

Aliyev stressed that "there is already a general agreement about that".

"We can do it in stages, but this must not be protracted. The occupied
areas of Azerbaijan must be freed in the near few years," he said.

Aliyev cited as the second demand the "return of all refugees to
their homes".

The status of Nagorno-Karabakh could be determined only after these
two demands are met, he said.

"This status can be given only within the framework of the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan," he stressed.

He added that Azerbaijan was not against the temporary stationing of
peacekeeping forces in the conflict area and the use of the Lachinsky
"corridor", which traverses the Lachinsky district of Azerbaijan,
as a communication route between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.

Aliyev said that the negotiations over these principles were going on.

He called on people not to believe speculations about details of
the negotiations.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress