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  • Azerbaijan will remain at negotiation table

    Agency WPS
    DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
    October 6, 2006 Friday

    AZERBAIJAN WILL REMAIN AT THE NEGOTIATION TABLE

    by Sohbet Mamedov

    OSCE MEDIATORS CONVINCED BAKU OF THE NECESSITY TO CONTINUE CONTACTS
    WITH YEREVAN; Azerbaijani-Armenian contacts will continue.

    President Ilham Aliyev's consent to continue contacts with Armenia
    became the principal result of the latest round of negotiations
    between chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group and Azerbaijani leaders in
    Baku.

    Russian, American, and French diplomats elicited from official Baku
    an agreement to organize a meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian
    foreign ministers. Yuri Merzlyakov, Russian Chairman of the OSCE
    Minsk Group, said at the press conference that "renewal of direct
    contacts over the Nagorno-Karabakh resolution was the subject of the
    negotiations in Baku. We consider the mission accomplished."
    According to the Russian diplomat, after similar consultations with
    the Armenian leadership the involved parties will be able to discuss
    the place and the time of a meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian
    foreign ministers and of a summit after that. A source in the
    Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry claims that meetings like that may
    already take place in late October.

    Bernard Faciet of France acknowledged that the international
    mediators would find organization of new meetings difficult because
    their respective capitals "do not put up with a military solution to
    the problem." Matthew Bryza of the United States said that GUAM's
    recent initiative to have the problem of suspended conflicts
    discussed by the UN "might have a positive effect on the process of
    Karabakh resolution."

    Under pressure from enemies of negotiations with Armenia, Aliyev
    addressed the first meeting of the autumn session of the Milli Mejlis
    or national parliament. He said that not everything of what
    international mediators were suggesting was acceptable for
    Azerbaijan, the country that had lost 20% of its territory to
    Armenia. "We are condemned for the alleged lack of interest in
    finding a solution to the Karabakh problem. They say we are not
    solving it. We are not solving it because what options of resolution
    are offered do not answer national interests of Azerbaijan. Whatever
    pressure may be applied, I will never sign any such document," Aliyev
    said.

    Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, October 4, 2006, p. 5

    Translated by A. Ignatkin
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