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ANKARA: Armenia Threatens Azeris With Karabakh Recognition

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  • ANKARA: Armenia Threatens Azeris With Karabakh Recognition

    ARMENIA THREATENS AZERIS WITH KARABAKH RECOGNITION

    www.worldbulletin.net
    Nov 23 2009
    Turkey

    Armenian forces occupied the territory of 100,000 people and seven
    surrounding Azeri districts.

    Armenia said on Monday it could recognise breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh as
    an independent state if Azerbaijan carries out its threat of military
    action to take back the mountain territory.

    Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev held
    talks on Sunday on the occupied territory at the heart of the South
    Caucasus, a strategic crossroads between East and West and key transit
    region for oil and gas to Europe.

    In comments broadcast on Saturday, Aliyev warned that Azeri patience
    was running thin and that without a breakthrough soon, Azeri troops
    were ready to take back the territory by force if necassary.

    Sarksyan's spokesman Samvel Farmanyan said in a statement: "It should
    be noted that Armenia so far has not recognised the independence of
    Nagorno-Karabakh for one reason -- so that it would not become an
    obstacle to peaceful negotiation."

    "If peaceful negotiations break down and military action begins, then
    nothing stands in the way of Armenia recognising the independence
    of Nagorno-Karabakh."

    Fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh erupted as the Soviet Union headed
    towards its 1991 collapse. Some 30,000 people died and more than 1
    million were displaced before a ceasefire in 1994.

    Armenian forces occupied the territory of 100,000 people and seven
    surrounding Azeri districts.

    With no peace deal, soldiers on the frontline continue to be picked off
    by landmines and snipers. No state has recognised Nagorno-Karabakh as
    "independent."

    Ankara says it wants Armenian forces to pull back before it ratifies
    a deal to establish diplomatic ties with Yerevan and open the border
    it closed in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan.

    Media reports in Azerbaijan and Turkey say about a possible Armenian
    pullback from the Azeri districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh in
    order to clinch the deal with Turkey.

    Mediators from the United States, Russia and France gave little away
    on Sunday after Aliyev and Sarksyan's sixth meeting this year, saying
    they made "important progress" but also met some difficulties.

    They said they would work with the sides' foreign ministers ahead of
    an OSCE Ministerial Council in Athens on Dec. 1-2. Reuters
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