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eTaiwan News, Taiwan
Nov 17 2004
Armenia pessimistic over Karabakh solution to territorial claim
2004-11-17 / Reuters /
A top Armenian official said he was losing hope for a solution to the
long and bitter territorial dispute with neighboring Azerbaijan which
he accused of trying to negotiate through blackmail.
Rival claims have hung over tiny, mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh from
the early Soviet era.
An ethnic Armenian region inside Azerbaijan, it was the scene of one
of the bloodiest of the ethnic wars that broke out in the ashes of
the Soviet Union.
"I'm not very optimistic about this issue," defense Minister Serzh
Sarksyan told Reuters in an interview late on Monday. "I do not see
anything serious (in negotiations) from our neighbours."
An estimated 35,000 people were killed and some one million refugees
fled to Azerbaijan where they remain.
Thousands of ethnic Armenian refugees also fled to Armenia. A truce
was agreed in 1994 but there has been little movement to end the
dispute, despite international mediation.
Sarksyan said that when the two presidents met earlier this year,
both leaders had sounded hopeful about the chances of a peaceful
resolution. Then, he said, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev tried to put
pressure on Armenia through the United Nations.
"Are they trying to make us calm down and (also) trying to press us
through the United Nations? We don't understand it," said Sarksyan,
seen as President Robert Kocharyan's closest political ally and his
potential successor.
"In this very important issue, both parties must be honest, to make
the other side hopeful of a good solution. But if one of the parties
is coming to the negotiations hiding his hand behind him with a stone
in it, that is not negotiations.
"Today, we just have to find a compromise. The time has long past for
making hints. Now is the time for speaking directly," he said.
He added: "From (Armenian) society, there is no great pressure to
solve this through compromise. But I think that the issue can only be
solved through compromise."
Looking for a compromise
In an October interview with Reuters, Aliyev said time was running
out to resolve the issue, one of a handful of so-called frozen
conflicts left over from the collapse of the Soviet empire. Aliyev
warned that Azerbaijan would not wait forever, nor would it ever give
up its claim to the region.
But Sarksyan, himself from Nagorno-Karabakh and who led troops in the
conflict, said he saw no signs that conditions were being readied for
fighting to start again.
Armenia was prepared to discuss handing back a buffer zone on the
border with Azerbaijan, treating the Nagorno-Karabakh issue as a
separate issue if three key principles are held to.
Those are that Nagorno-Karabakh never be subordinated to Azerbaijan,
that it would not remain an enclave and that it would get guarantees
of security.
Armenia's hold over Nagorno-Karabakh is not internationally
recognised and, analysts say, has been a drag on the economy by
blocking trade relations and trade routes with oil-rich Azerbaijan
and neighbouring Turkey.
"Obviously, we are ready to negotiate on the security zone. That is
the most realistic. We are in a position to speak about compromises.
The Azeris do not have anything. They say 'we are also ready for
compromise'.
"Ask them: what compromise? They say 'give everything back including
Nagorno-Karabakh and after that we will not start hostilities.' That
is not compromise, that is blackmail," Sarksyan said.
Nov 17 2004
Armenia pessimistic over Karabakh solution to territorial claim
2004-11-17 / Reuters /
A top Armenian official said he was losing hope for a solution to the
long and bitter territorial dispute with neighboring Azerbaijan which
he accused of trying to negotiate through blackmail.
Rival claims have hung over tiny, mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh from
the early Soviet era.
An ethnic Armenian region inside Azerbaijan, it was the scene of one
of the bloodiest of the ethnic wars that broke out in the ashes of
the Soviet Union.
"I'm not very optimistic about this issue," defense Minister Serzh
Sarksyan told Reuters in an interview late on Monday. "I do not see
anything serious (in negotiations) from our neighbours."
An estimated 35,000 people were killed and some one million refugees
fled to Azerbaijan where they remain.
Thousands of ethnic Armenian refugees also fled to Armenia. A truce
was agreed in 1994 but there has been little movement to end the
dispute, despite international mediation.
Sarksyan said that when the two presidents met earlier this year,
both leaders had sounded hopeful about the chances of a peaceful
resolution. Then, he said, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev tried to put
pressure on Armenia through the United Nations.
"Are they trying to make us calm down and (also) trying to press us
through the United Nations? We don't understand it," said Sarksyan,
seen as President Robert Kocharyan's closest political ally and his
potential successor.
"In this very important issue, both parties must be honest, to make
the other side hopeful of a good solution. But if one of the parties
is coming to the negotiations hiding his hand behind him with a stone
in it, that is not negotiations.
"Today, we just have to find a compromise. The time has long past for
making hints. Now is the time for speaking directly," he said.
He added: "From (Armenian) society, there is no great pressure to
solve this through compromise. But I think that the issue can only be
solved through compromise."
Looking for a compromise
In an October interview with Reuters, Aliyev said time was running
out to resolve the issue, one of a handful of so-called frozen
conflicts left over from the collapse of the Soviet empire. Aliyev
warned that Azerbaijan would not wait forever, nor would it ever give
up its claim to the region.
But Sarksyan, himself from Nagorno-Karabakh and who led troops in the
conflict, said he saw no signs that conditions were being readied for
fighting to start again.
Armenia was prepared to discuss handing back a buffer zone on the
border with Azerbaijan, treating the Nagorno-Karabakh issue as a
separate issue if three key principles are held to.
Those are that Nagorno-Karabakh never be subordinated to Azerbaijan,
that it would not remain an enclave and that it would get guarantees
of security.
Armenia's hold over Nagorno-Karabakh is not internationally
recognised and, analysts say, has been a drag on the economy by
blocking trade relations and trade routes with oil-rich Azerbaijan
and neighbouring Turkey.
"Obviously, we are ready to negotiate on the security zone. That is
the most realistic. We are in a position to speak about compromises.
The Azeris do not have anything. They say 'we are also ready for
compromise'.
"Ask them: what compromise? They say 'give everything back including
Nagorno-Karabakh and after that we will not start hostilities.' That
is not compromise, that is blackmail," Sarksyan said.