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AZERBAIJAN'S PRESIDENT SPEAKS TOUGHLY ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Aida Sultanova
AP Worldstream
Mar 16, 2006
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev on Thursday warned rival Armenia
that his nation could boycott talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
if the Armenian authorities don't soften their stance.
Aliev said Azerbaijan would continue to participate in peace talks,
but warned "this process can't continue endlessly, and the patience
of the Azerbaijani people and authorities is running out."
Nagorno-Karabakh is inside Azerbaijan but populated mostly by ethnic
Armenians, who have run it since an uneasy 1994 cease-fire ended six
years of full-scale war. Sporadic border clashes continue to claim
victims, while peace talks have stalled.
Aliev and Armenia's President Robert Kocharian last month failed
to reach agreement after two days of talks in France on how to end
the conflict. Since then, violence has risen sharply, and the two
countries' presidents have traded increasingly bellicose statements.
Speaking Thursday to a public congress, Aliev accused Armenia of
"failing to take a constructive stance in talks, being dishonest and
trying to cheat the world public."
The conflict has held up development of the entire Caucasus region
and badly hurt the Armenian economy which has suffered from blockade
imposed by neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Aliev on Thursday vowed to maintain the blockade.
"We will never allow the country which seized our lands to participate
in the regional cooperation," Aliev said. "We have isolated Armenia
from all regional projects."
He said that the oil-rich Azerbaijan would soon be able to bolster its
military budget to a level comparable to the entire government budget
of Armenia. "Armenia will never be able to compete with us," he said.
Senior U.S. diplomats, who visited Azerbaijan and Armenia this week
for talks on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement and regional security,
prodded Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach agreement.
"Both sides are strong defenders of their national positions; our
discussions in both capitals were serious," Daniel Fried, assistant
U.S. secretary of state for European Affairs and Eurasian Affairs,
said Thursday in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
Fried and Steven Mann, the U.S. envoy to the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe's so-called Minsk Group of mediators,
have visited Baku earlier this week.
Mann said Thursday in Yerevan that they "felt from each president
that there is interest in moving forward and trying to see what the
sides can negotiate, and the United States is going to support this
in the best way we can."
___
Associated Press writer Avet Demourian contributed to this report
from Yerevan, Armenia.
Aida Sultanova
AP Worldstream
Mar 16, 2006
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev on Thursday warned rival Armenia
that his nation could boycott talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
if the Armenian authorities don't soften their stance.
Aliev said Azerbaijan would continue to participate in peace talks,
but warned "this process can't continue endlessly, and the patience
of the Azerbaijani people and authorities is running out."
Nagorno-Karabakh is inside Azerbaijan but populated mostly by ethnic
Armenians, who have run it since an uneasy 1994 cease-fire ended six
years of full-scale war. Sporadic border clashes continue to claim
victims, while peace talks have stalled.
Aliev and Armenia's President Robert Kocharian last month failed
to reach agreement after two days of talks in France on how to end
the conflict. Since then, violence has risen sharply, and the two
countries' presidents have traded increasingly bellicose statements.
Speaking Thursday to a public congress, Aliev accused Armenia of
"failing to take a constructive stance in talks, being dishonest and
trying to cheat the world public."
The conflict has held up development of the entire Caucasus region
and badly hurt the Armenian economy which has suffered from blockade
imposed by neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Aliev on Thursday vowed to maintain the blockade.
"We will never allow the country which seized our lands to participate
in the regional cooperation," Aliev said. "We have isolated Armenia
from all regional projects."
He said that the oil-rich Azerbaijan would soon be able to bolster its
military budget to a level comparable to the entire government budget
of Armenia. "Armenia will never be able to compete with us," he said.
Senior U.S. diplomats, who visited Azerbaijan and Armenia this week
for talks on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement and regional security,
prodded Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach agreement.
"Both sides are strong defenders of their national positions; our
discussions in both capitals were serious," Daniel Fried, assistant
U.S. secretary of state for European Affairs and Eurasian Affairs,
said Thursday in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
Fried and Steven Mann, the U.S. envoy to the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe's so-called Minsk Group of mediators,
have visited Baku earlier this week.
Mann said Thursday in Yerevan that they "felt from each president
that there is interest in moving forward and trying to see what the
sides can negotiate, and the United States is going to support this
in the best way we can."
___
Associated Press writer Avet Demourian contributed to this report
from Yerevan, Armenia.