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Armenian FM: Kosovo, Karabakh, Not So Different

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  • Armenian FM: Kosovo, Karabakh, Not So Different

    ARMENIAN FM: KOSOVO, KARABAKH, NOT SO DIFFERENT

    B92
    Jan 9 2008
    Serbia

    YEREVAN, BAKU -- The Armenian chief of diplomacy drew parallels
    between the region of Nagorno Karabakh and Kosovo, reports say.

    An Azerbaijani news website quoted Vardan Oskanyan, who was speaking
    in a news conference Wednesday, as saying that the disputed region
    and Kosovo conflicts have "several common features."

    Nagorno Karabakh, an Azerbaijani territory, is inhabited by majority
    Armenians, and is often referred to as being a de facto independent
    republic. But Baku is refusing to grant the territory independence,
    and so is the international community.

    "Each conflict is specific in nature, but at a definite stage the legal
    and ethnic features of the conflicts are similar. The Karabakh and
    Kosovo conflicts also have common features", Today.az cited Oskanyan
    as saying.

    The Armenian foreign policy chief is also quoted as saying that
    "ethnic cleansing and crimes are among those common features."

    "While ethnic cleansing and crimes have been prevented in Kosovo by
    NATO and the international community, Armenia prevented these events
    towards the people of Karabakh", Oskanyan said.

    He said in case of Kosovo the incident became known on the
    international arena, "while the ethnic cleansing and crimes in the
    so-called Nagorno Karabakh conflict remained the local problem and
    were not recognized by the world community," the website reported.

    Meanwhile, in words eerily reminiscent of those heard from officials
    involved in the ongoing Kosovo status crisis, Azerbaijani President
    Ilham Aliyev said his country "will never allow the creation of a
    second Armenian state on its territory."

    "We will never allow the creation of the second Armenian state in the
    territory of Azerbaijan. If Armenians residing in Nagorno-Karabakh
    want to decide their fate, they must do it basing on the principle
    of Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity, but if they do not want to do
    this, they must leave Nagorno-Karabakh and create their second state
    in another place. Anyway, the creation of the second Armenian state
    in Azerbaijan's territory is impossible," Aliyev was quoted.

    "We will never make a concession concerning our territorial
    integrity. Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity is inviolable; the
    Nagorno-Karabakh will never be given independence. The leadership
    and the people of Azerbaijan will never agree with that, and
    the international community will never recognize independence of
    Nagorno-Karabakh. We are holding talks in this direction," Aliyev
    added.

    The question of whether granting Kosovo, a province of Serbia,
    independence, would spur other disputed regions worldwide to follow
    suit, unilaterally declare independence and expect the international
    community to recognize such acts, has been at the heart of some EU
    members' opposition to allow the province to gain independence.

    And while the United States, and the largest EU countries maintain
    that Kosovo's independence would not constitute for a precedent,
    Russia, and some EU members, such as Romania, Cyprus and Slovakia,
    claim the opposite.
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