GENOCIDE RESOLUTION WOULD SOLVE NOTHING
International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
Oct 26 2007
France
US mediator: Azerbaijan, Armenia could sign framework agreement on
Nagorno-Karabakh
BAKU, Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan and Armenia could sign a framework
agreement next year resolving the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory,
a co-chairman of the group mediating the conflict said Friday. "There
is a possibility that prior to presidential elections in Armenia, which
will take place in the spring of next year, some kind of framework
agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could be signed by the
heads of Azerbaijan and Armenia," said Matthew J. Bryza, deputy
assistant U.S. secretary of state and co-chairman of the so-called
Minsk Group set up to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Bryza
said Armenian President Robert Kocharian had told the Minsk Group
chairmen during their meeting Thursday in Yerevan that signing such a
"gentlemanly agreement" prior to the country’s presidential ballot was
possible. "I asked the president myself this question, and in reply he
said that such a possibility exists," Bryza told journalists. "But,
of course, this will not be the end of the negotiation process,"
the diplomat stressed, adding that he hoped a new Armenian president
would uphold any such agreement. The Minsk Group diplomats, including
representatives from Russia and France, are in the two Caucuses
countries as part the negotiation process.
After meeting with officials in Baku they planned to return to
Armenia and then back again to Azerbaijan, French mediator Bernard
Fassier said. The mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh territory is part of
Azerbaijan, but has been controlled – along with some surrounding
areas – by local and Armenian forces since 1994, when a cease-fire
ended a six-year separatist war. Some 30,000 people were killed,
and about 1 million driven from their homes in the conflict. Ethnic
Armenians now account for virtually the entire population of the
territory. Nagorno-Karabakh held presidential elections in July,
which Azerbaijan has rejected as illegitimate.