Author: Andres-Papazian

Today, Azerbaijan
July 16 2010

“The same attention will be given to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia
in associative agreement talks”

16 July 2010 [18:15] – Today.Az

The same attention will be given to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia
within the framework of negotiations on associative agreement between
South Caucasus countries and EU, Head of the EU delegation John Cryer
said.

He said offers by EU on Agreement are same for the three countries.

“All South Caucasus countries will be given the same attention. The
only difference is the attitude of the countries to our offer,” he
said.

EU has already begun negotiations on associative agreement with
Georgia and Azerbaijan.

/APA/

URL:

From: A. Papazian

Today, Azerbaijan
July 16 2010

Russian analyst: Baku is ready to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by force

16 July 2010 [16:37] – Today.Az

Day.Az interview with Russian political analyst Vyacheslav Smirnov.

Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers are expected to meet in
Almaty today on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting.
In your opinion, what will be result of this meeting?

I have read opinion of both the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and
Armenian press. Armenian Foreign Ministry says it does not plan to
hold discussions in Kazakhstan. It is hard to predict something given
this statement. I think the talks will take place without any
noticeable results.

May Hillary Clinton’s recent tour of the South Caucasus have impact on
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution?

It seems that Hillary Clinton mainly discussed Armenia-Turkey
normalization which is much more important for the United States than
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The fact that Turkey was
openly dissatisfied with Clinton’s visit to Armenia and some of her
statements proves this.

Issue of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was likely to be ritual in
Clinton’s talks in Yerevan because this issue is raised constantly
during visits of high-rank West officials to the region. The Western
guests always state that they are ready to make every effort to help
to resolve the conflict peacefully as soon as possible. In turn,
Armenia says that people of Nagorno-Karabakh allegedly should be given
independence. That is it. In other words, attempts of leaders of the
co-chairing countries to interfere with the resolution process fail to
change the situation. We have observed this state of affairs over the
last three years.

Leaders of France, the United States and Russia made a statement just
for the sake of statement. As they say, we are all peacemakers. In its
turn, Armenia does not want the status quo to change. Unfortunately, I
see no movements in the conflict resolution in the coming year.

In your opinion, how far resumption of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh is real?

Baku is ready to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by military
means. However, we must remember that Azerbaijan will face pressure
from both Moscow and the West. Co-chairing countries are not
interested in armed conflict in the Caucasus. They are more interested
in a frozen conflict. They want their personal interests to be taken
into account. They want conflicting sides to turn to them constantly
as arbitrators. Russia does not differ from America or Western Europe
in this case.

/Day.Az/

URL:

From: A. Papazian

Today, Azerbaijan
July 16 2010

Azerbaijani MP: What remains for Azerbaijan to do is to use its right
to liberate Armenia-occupied lands by force

16 July 2010 [15:45] – Today.Az

`The activities of the current co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group may
seem slow, because when Matthew Bryza was a mediator, he often made
inappropriate optimistic statements on the Armenian-Azerbaijani
negotiations. But after a while, he renounced his words,” member of
the Azerbaijani parliament Aynur Jamalgizi said.

The MP said Azerbaijan still hopes that the negotiations held under
the auspices of international mediators will finally lead to a just
settlement to the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani
internally displaced persons look forward to return to their native
towns and villages.

“But our desire does not coincide with reality because of bias of the
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs towards Azerbaijan. International
negotiators treat the aggressor and the country subject to aggression
equally. They make only statements that the parties should themselves
reach a common agreement,” the MP added.

`There are only two versions of compromise in this issue.’

“Armenia will either de-occupy Azerbaijan’s occupied lands or
Azerbaijan will give these territories to Armenia, which is totally
unacceptable. Of course, the second option is ruled out, because it is
Azerbaijan will never do this,’ the MP noted.

`Strange enough, they always mean only Azerbaijan when it comes to
concessions. They push us to sign defeatist peace and completely
bypass the issue of de-occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. To get the
conflict resolved, the world powers should exert pressure on Armenia.
But we see opposite of it. The four UN resolutions and the European
Union resolution calling for the withdrawal of Armenian troops from
Azerbaijan’s lands still remain on paper,’ Jamalgizi stated.

`It makes no sense to speak about liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh while
the principles of territorial integrity and right of nations to
self-determinations are discussed simultaneously because Armenians
refuse self-determination within Azerbaijan.’

`What remains for Azerbaijan to do is to use right of a country
subject to aggression and to liberate Nagorno-Karabakh and other
occupied lands by force,’ Jamalgizi added.

/Day.Az/

URL:

From: A. Papazian

Today, Azerbaijan
July 16 2010

Turkish FM: Turkey does not propose to deploy peacekeeping troops in
Nagorno-Karabakh after its liberation

16 July 2010 [15:35] – Today.Az

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said today that Ankara has
not applied to any of the parties with a proposal to deploy
peacekeeping troops in Nagorno-Karabakh after the conflict is
resolved, Turkish news agency Anadolu said.

He said that the information about Turkish proposal to send
peacekeeping troops to the Nagorno-Karabakh region after the signing
of a peace agreement was false.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Davutoglu called for implementation of the plan to create the platform
of stability and security in the Caucasus to resolve conflicts in the
region. However, Yerevan’s refusal from participating in the Turkish
project harms only Armenia itself, Turkish minister said.

“Armenia harms only himself by refusing to accept Turkish assistance,
he said. Stability in the Caucasus is in the interest of all countries
in the region.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s initiative “Caucasus
platform” was proposed after the August events in Georgia in 2008.

/Trend/

URL:

From: A. Papazian

Today, Azerbaijan
July 16 2010

Azerbaijani foreign ministry says it is hard to work with Armenian diplomacy

16 July 2010 [15:25] – Today.Az

It is difficult to work with Armenian diplomats, as the country’s
leadership makes one statement at the negotiating table and makes
another in public, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan
Polukhov said while commenting on a recent statement by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

Nalbandian earlier refuted Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov’s statement that de-occupation of Lachin and Kalbajar
regions is being discussed with Armenia, and the same issue was
discussed by the two countries at a meeting in St. Petersburg,
Mediamax reported.

/Trend/

URL:

From: A. Papazian

Today, Azerbaijan
July 16 2010

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to top agenda of meeting between
Azerbaijani, Armenian FMs

16 July 2010 [14:45] – Today.Az

The peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between
Armenia and Azerbaijan will be the main topic of discussion at a
meeting of Azerbaijani and Turkish foreign ministers – Elmar
Mammadyarov and Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish Foreign Ministry Eurasian
Department Chief Mehmet Fatih Ceylan said.

The meeting will take place within the informal summit of foreign
ministers of the OSCE countries in Almaty.

Earlier the OSCE reported said that a joint meeting of Azerbaijani and
Armenian foreign ministers is planned to be held with colleagues from
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries – France, Russia and the
U.S within the summit. A preliminary date of the meeting is July 17.
It is expected that the parties will make joint statements after the
talks.

/Trend/

URL:

From: A. Papazian

Today, Azerbaijan
July 16 2010

Azerbaijani expert: Armenia will do everything possible to disrupt
Nagorno-Karabakh talks

16 July 2010 [13:07] – Today.Az

Day.Az interview with expert at Azerbaijan’s Lider TV station Tofiq Abbasov.

Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers are expected to discuss
de-occupation of Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar and Lachin regions on the
sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting that started in
Almaty today. Are these discussions likely to lead to some concrete
decision?

I suppose that this time Armenian side will continue to remain
faithful to the strategy it chose and will do everything to disrupt
the peace process. Armenia does not agree with the plan of liberation
of occupied Azerbaijani territories. Realizing that the room for
maneuver is rapidly shrinking, Armenians across the world are
preparing plans to change the power in Armenia, so that to take a
timeout and to begin negotiations from the very start.

The Armenia media quoted Armenian foreign minister as saying that the
key task of upcoming talks with Azerbaijan is `to see whether
Azerbaijan is ready to be committed to the latest version of the
Madrid principles¦’

Cynicism and hypocrisy have become an integral part of the Armenian
diplomacy. Foreign minister’s statement confirms this. But at the same
time, we can see how the current Armenian government loses support of
its own people. Sargsyan’s team has lost control of all the
fundamental institutions of the government. Karabakh segment is no
exception in this series. Its burden rests on the shoulders of
ordinary people. Neither populism nor flowery statements are able to
solve this problem.

What are your comments on Yerevan’s statement that the UN General
Assembly’s consideration of the resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict presented by Azerbaijan might have a negative impact on
resolution of the conflict?

This is another case of extremely nervous and inadequate response by
Yerevan on the steps by the Azerbaijani side, which are intended to
move the reconciliation process forward. Speculation regarding the UN
General Assembly’s pending resolution proves that Armenia is hiding
its head in the sand, not knowing what this position entails. After
all, the Madrid principles did not appear as a result of some random
action. They are a product of a certain stage and multilateral
efforts. They have been elaborated on the basis of international law.
The UN General Assembly, the European Parliament, OSCE, Council of
Europe, Organization of Islamic Conference and other entities have
been guided by these considerations while adopting relevant
resolutions in support of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

In your view, do OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries have leverage
of pressure on Armenia?

On numerous occasions we have heard the Minsk Group co-chairs to
announce that, first and foremost, Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders
should reach understanding between themselves. This approach is a
cause of criticism since it exposes inability or unwillingness of
major powers to clamp the party with an inadequate behavior.

Naturally, this approach raises doubts about Minsk Group’s ability and
interest. This ties up Azerbaijan’s hands in a clash with its
opponent.

/Day.Az/

URL:

From: A. Papazian

Levon Ter-Petrosyan: Karabakh conflict resolution not a priority task for West

July 17, 2010 – 13:04 AMT 08:04 GMT
PanARMENIAN.Net –

Armenia’s economic development is impossible without resolution of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict and normalization of relations with Turkey,
the first President of Armenia said.

`Maintenance of the current status quo will drive Armenia deeper into
the crisis. With protraction of the Karabakh conflict settlement, the
situation may go beyond control,’ Levon Ter-Petrosyan said during the
16th congress of the Armenian National Movement.

According to him, the conflict remains unsettled not because the sides
can’t reach an agreement but because it’s not a priority task for the
West.

Ter-Petrosyan also voiced confidence that the key to Armenian-Turkish
reconciliation is in Russia’s hands.

From: A. Papazian

Hakob Avetikyan: principle – money for power and power for money –
works in Armenia

July 17, 2010 – 14:23 AMT 09:23 GMT
PanARMENIAN.Net –

On July 17, Yerevan hosted the second congress of Armenakan-Ramkavar
Azatakan party with participation of 100 delegates.

The congress is supposed to elect a new board of the party.

Leader of the party Hakob Avetikyan submitted a report on the activity
of the party’s republican board during a year.

He noted that the party is going to transfer its central archive from
Beirut to Yerevan to provide Armenian experts with the opportunity to
study its history.

`We envisage planting 1,500,000 trees in Armenia till the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,’ said Avetikyan.

Referring to the economic and political situation in Armenia, Hakob
Avetikyan noted that Armenakan-Ramkavar Azatakan party can be a
balancing force among opposition and pro-governmental blocs of
Armenia.

`The state administration is in bad condition, the entire economy is
controlled by oligopoly. In other words, the principle – money for
power and power for money – works in Armenia,’ Avetikyan said, adding
that the party will do its utmost to enter the parliament in 2012 to
improve the situation and strengthen freedom and democracy in Armenia.

From: A. Papazian

Hakob Avetikyan: Armenia should do its utmost to re-engage Artsakh in
negotiation process

July 17, 2010 – 14:44 AMT 09:44 GMT
PanARMENIAN.Net –

Leader of Armenakan Ramkavar-Azatakan party Hakob Avetikyan said that
Armenia has committed several mistakes since the beginning of
negotiations on the Karabakh conflict settlement, which persist up to
date.

It is inadmissible that negotiations are held around surrender of some
territories, instead of speaking about Azerbaijan’s responsibility for
unleashing hostilities against Arstakh civilians, Avetikyan told the
party’s congress.

`Armenia should raise the issue of Armenian refugees and do its utmost
to re-engage Artsakh to the negotiation process. The essence of the
Karabakh conflict has been distorted, and it needs to be returned to
the normal track,’ he concluded.

From: A. Papazian