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OFFICIALS DON'T EXPECT BREAKTHROUGH IN TODAY'S KARABAKH TALKS
Today's Zaman
08 October 2009, Thursday
Moldova's capital, Chisinau, is set to host new talks between Armenian
and Azerbaijani leaders concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute today,
but officials involved in the issue have tamed high expectations
concerning the outcome of the meeting, which will be held on the
sidelines of a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Armenia went to war with neighboring Azerbaijan in the early 1990s over
the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian
enclave located within Azerbaijan's internationally recognized
borders. Some 30,000 people died.
The war ended with a 1994 cease-fire after Armenian-backed forces
seized control of Nagorno-Karabakh and districts around it, including
a corridor of Azerbaijani land connecting it to Armenia.
International mediators have been putting pressure on Armenia to
negotiate with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh as part of a wider
attempt to secure a lasting peace in the region. Robert Bradtke,
the US co-chair of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has been working for a decade
and a half to mediate the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia
and Azerbaijan, told reporters in Baku he hoped that the "positive
dynamics" between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders would continue at
the Chisinau meeting. "There are intensified efforts ... to make sure
that at some point, relatively soon, there will be something from the
Karabakh process that could help the Turkish-Armenian process move
forward," a senior European diplomat told Reuters, referring to the
ongoing normalization process between Ankara and Yerevan.
But, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity
surrounding the talks, the European diplomat added that he did not
expect any major announcement in Moldova, saying, "I think it's going
to take longer than that."
The Chisinau talks come only two days before a and Turkish foreign
ministers are expected to sign protocols aimed at establishing
diplomatic ties between Armenia and Turkey and opening the
border. Ahead of today's talks with Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan,
Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev upped the stakes by saying,
"The negotiation process [on Nagorno-Karabakh] is already in its
final phase."
Observers believe Azerbaijan is pushing for at least a partial
Armenian withdrawal from seven Azerbaijani districts that surround
Nagorno-Karabakh which were captured during the war. "Armenia ... wants
to separate Karabakh from Azerbaijan, while Azerbaijan intends to
take back our own lands under our own control," Azerbaijani Deputy
Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said. Armenian officials played down
expectations. "To say that tomorrow there will be a breakthrough,
I don't know where this kind of expectation could come from,"
an Armenian foreign ministry spokesman said. The senior European
diplomat, when asked about the chances of Turkey opening the border as
planned by year's end, without progress on Nagorno-Karabakh, replied
"fairly slim."
Today's Zaman
08 October 2009, Thursday
Moldova's capital, Chisinau, is set to host new talks between Armenian
and Azerbaijani leaders concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute today,
but officials involved in the issue have tamed high expectations
concerning the outcome of the meeting, which will be held on the
sidelines of a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Armenia went to war with neighboring Azerbaijan in the early 1990s over
the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian
enclave located within Azerbaijan's internationally recognized
borders. Some 30,000 people died.
The war ended with a 1994 cease-fire after Armenian-backed forces
seized control of Nagorno-Karabakh and districts around it, including
a corridor of Azerbaijani land connecting it to Armenia.
International mediators have been putting pressure on Armenia to
negotiate with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh as part of a wider
attempt to secure a lasting peace in the region. Robert Bradtke,
the US co-chair of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has been working for a decade
and a half to mediate the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia
and Azerbaijan, told reporters in Baku he hoped that the "positive
dynamics" between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders would continue at
the Chisinau meeting. "There are intensified efforts ... to make sure
that at some point, relatively soon, there will be something from the
Karabakh process that could help the Turkish-Armenian process move
forward," a senior European diplomat told Reuters, referring to the
ongoing normalization process between Ankara and Yerevan.
But, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity
surrounding the talks, the European diplomat added that he did not
expect any major announcement in Moldova, saying, "I think it's going
to take longer than that."
The Chisinau talks come only two days before a and Turkish foreign
ministers are expected to sign protocols aimed at establishing
diplomatic ties between Armenia and Turkey and opening the
border. Ahead of today's talks with Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan,
Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev upped the stakes by saying,
"The negotiation process [on Nagorno-Karabakh] is already in its
final phase."
Observers believe Azerbaijan is pushing for at least a partial
Armenian withdrawal from seven Azerbaijani districts that surround
Nagorno-Karabakh which were captured during the war. "Armenia ... wants
to separate Karabakh from Azerbaijan, while Azerbaijan intends to
take back our own lands under our own control," Azerbaijani Deputy
Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said. Armenian officials played down
expectations. "To say that tomorrow there will be a breakthrough,
I don't know where this kind of expectation could come from,"
an Armenian foreign ministry spokesman said. The senior European
diplomat, when asked about the chances of Turkey opening the border as
planned by year's end, without progress on Nagorno-Karabakh, replied
"fairly slim."