ELMAR MAMMADYAROV: WE KEEP ALL OPTIONS ON THE TABLE WHEN IT COMES TO RESTORING THE FULL SOVEREIGNTY OF AZERBAIJAN
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 30 2008
Baku. Turan Huseynova-APA. "With oil at more than $115 a barrel, and
the global market on tenterhooks, there is virtual inaction by the
major consumer countries of the West to resolve a simmering conflict
less than 20 km from the world’s second-longest oil pipeline.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline bringing Caspian oil to the
Mediterranean and western markets through Azerbaijan, Georgia,
and Turkey skirts the conflict zone of Nagorno-Karabakh – the
internationally-recognized Azerbaijani territory currently under
Armenian occupation," says the article by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov published in European Voice magazine.
"World energy security, as well as the stability and economic
prosperity of the Caspian region, now demands that the long-running
dispute over Karabakh, part of Europe’s new neighbourhood, is
settled. Azerbaijan is determined to see its territorial integrity
restored in the near future. Over two decades, almost a million of our
people have been displaced by a foreign occupying force. A resolution
will not just benefit us. Armenia too will see its international
isolation ended. Its borders with Azerbaijan will be opened, with
all the prosperity that will follow lucrative east-west trade and
transport," the article says.
"As for Russia, its interests in the region for once converge very well
with those of the EU. As one of the biggest foreign direct investors
in our countries, Russian businesses will benefit from stability,
transparency, and predictability in the South Caucasus.
Despite phenomenal economic progress in Azerbaijan, our full potential
– and thus the full potential of the Caspian region – cannot be
realised while the conflict remains unresolved," the minister writes.
The minister underlines that the occupied areas are also havens for
illegal transnational activity, money laundering and drug and arms
trafficking, which directly affects the citizens of European countries
as well as the states in the region.
"On 15 April, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed
clear support for Azerbaijan’s full sovereignty and called for more
political will to achieve resolution. The NATO alliance at its summit
in Bucharest earlier this month agreed that peace in Karabakh must
be realized quickly and within the borders of Azerbaijan. In March,
the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution reaffirming
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and explicitly calling for the
withdrawal of all Armenian forces," the article writes.
"Staring down Armenian forces over a shaky ceasefire line inside
our internationally recognized territory is no longer a workable
reality. They must leave and the displaced people return.
Azerbaijan proposes a final offer to Armenia. We support full autonomy
for Karabakh within Azerbaijan. Our priority is diplomacy, but we
keep all options on the table when it comes to restoring the full
sovereignty of Azerbaijan," the article writes.