KARABAKH PEACE ‘AS CLOSE AS NEVER BEFORE’
By Aza Babayan in Moscow
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
May 8 2007
Armenia and Azerbaijan are as close to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflicting as never before, a senior Azerbaijani official said
on Tuesday.
"I would say that never before have we been so close to a settlement,"
Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said, speaking at the Carnegie
Center in Moscow. "Having said that, there is a danger that we may
move away from peace at any moment," he cautioned without elaborating.
The remarks echoed optimistic statements made by international
mediators in recent months. In a speech at high-level meeting of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna
last month, Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian similarly said that
the conflicting parties are as close to settling the bitter dispute
as ever. President Robert Kocharian and other Armenian leaders have
sounded less upbeat on that score, however.
The American, French, and Russian mediators co-chairing the OSCE
Minsk Group hope that Kocharian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliev will meet again and cut a framework peace deal shortly after
Armenia’s May 12 parliamentary elections. Kocharian has said the
Armenian-Azerbaijani summit is tentatively scheduled for June 10.
In Azimov’s words, Oskanian and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov will hold separate talks with the Minsk Group co-chairs
in Strasbourg later this week. A spokesman for the Armenian Foreign
Ministry confirmed the information, according to the Regnum news
agency.
The parties, meanwhile, continue to make differing interpretations
of some key points of a peace accord put forward by. In particular,
Azimov stood by Aliev’s claims that the proposed deal envisages an
Armenian pullout from all seven Azerbaijani districts surrounding
Karabakh, including the Lachin corridor. He also said that Baku is
ready to grant the disputed region "anything but independence."
The Armenian side, for its part, maintains that as part of the
would-be accord, the Karabakh Armenians would be able to formalize
their secession from Azerbaijan in a referendum of self-determination
to be held years after the Armenian troop withdrawal. It also insists
that Karabakh have a "common border" with Armenia proper.