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Azerbaijan Rules Out Non-Aggression Pact With Armenia

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  • Azerbaijan Rules Out Non-Aggression Pact With Armenia

    AZERBAIJAN RULES OUT NON-AGGRESSION PACT WITH ARMENIA

    http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/1 990716.html
    22.03.2010

    Azerbaijan rejected over the weekend an Armenian proposal to sign of
    a non-aggression pact before the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
    conflict, saying that Yerevan should first ensure the liberation of
    occupied Azerbaijani territories.

    President Serzh Sarkisian made the proposal in an interview with
    Euronews television that was aired late on Friday. "That would create
    an atmosphere of trust in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh," he said. "And
    in those conditions, we would start negotiations over a settlement."

    "If the head of Armenia wants to eliminate the threat of use of force
    [by Azerbaijan,] then let him eliminate the causes that can lead to
    the use of force," a spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry,
    Elkhan Polukhov, said on Saturday. "Namely, to withdraw Armenian
    forces from Azerbaijan's occupied territories."

    According to Azerbaijani media, Polukhov said Baku will therefore
    retain its "right to restore territorial integrity" which he said is
    guaranteed by international law. Azerbaijani leaders have repeatedly
    threatened to solve the Karabakh conflict by military means if the
    protracted peace talks with Armenia fail to yield an agreement.

    Non-use of force or threat of force as well as territorial integrity
    and peoples' right to self-determination are the three fundamental
    principles of a Karabakh settlement favored by international mediators
    and upheld by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
    at a ministerial conference held in Athens late last year. The foreign
    ministers of both Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a relevant declaration
    that was adopted by the forum.

    Sarkisian called for an Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement on non-use of
    force in response to a question about Baku's claims that it will never
    come to terms with the loss of Karabakh. He stood by the official
    Armenian line that Karabakh has never been part of an independent
    Azerbaijan and should therefore remain under Armenian control.

    Sarkisian did not comment on the mediators' recently amended basic
    principles of Karabakh peace and chances of their acceptance by the
    conflicting parties in the course of this year.
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