PRES OF AZERBAIJAN CONTRADICTS HIS FOREIGN MINISTER ON KARABAKH OPTIMISM
Armen Hareyan
HULIQ.com
Nov 8 2010
SC
The Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan sharply
critiqued the war rhetoric of the president of Azerbaijan over
Nagorno Karabakh, after the latter said his country will use force,
if necessary, to liberate territorial integrity, without any regard
to people's right to self-determination. Last week, the foreign
minister of Azerbaijan spoke of optimism after Astrakhan meeting:
an attitude that apparently is not shared by his president.
On October 27th the president of Russian Dmitri Medvedev hosted a
meeting in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan with his Armenian
and Azeri counterparts. After the meeting Medvedev also spoke of
certain optimism saying that "the general principles for settling
the Nagorno-Karabakh problem could be drafted in time for the OSCE
summit that will take place on December 1-2, 2010 in Astana." The
main agreement in Astrakhan was the exchange of prisoners, which mean
taking steps that would develop mutual trust between the two sides.
Last week the foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov said
that he expected the summit in Astana to become "a turning point
in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict and all the same he did
not rule out the preparation of the roadmap on the settlement of the
situation in the South Caucasus region." His optimism is not shared
by his country's president Ilham Aliyev who yesterday said Azerbaijan
will resort to the military solution if the talks fail.
"The Azerbaijani state will restore its territorial integrity through
war. I do not doubt that we have all the opportunities including
combat readiness, material and technical maintenance, sufficient
arms and ammunition, a professional army, high spirit and the will
of the Azerbaijani people. We are able to restore the territorial
integrity of the country through war. And the enemy must know and
does know this," Aliyev said yesterday. He also went on to say "the
current Armenian state is formed on historical Azerbaijani land,"
a rhetoric totally contradicting the achievements of the negotiation
process mediated by Russia, France and U.S..
Armenia did not appreciate Azerbaijan's threat of force Armenian
response to the use of force and the claim on its territory was sharp
and swift. Commenting on the provocative statements by president Aliyev
the deputy foreign minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan released
the following statement. The statement is the partial translation
from the Russian version sent to Huliq by email from the Armenian
Foreign Ministry.
"Obviously the head of Azerbaijan continues to ignore his country's
own obligations to the international community and mediators, as
wells as acts cynically contrary to the documents which he himself
had signed in Mayndorfe and Astrakhan. He ignores the contemporary
international law and tries to act from the insolvent position of
the law of force. Astrakhan declaration calls for the strengthening
of confidence building measures through an exchange of prisoners and
dead bodies, but Ilham Aliyev is using this process from exactly the
opposit angle: to inflame tensions."
Kocharyan also said Aliyev sends death commandos to the line of
conflict "who according to his confession, knew in advance that they
will not come back alive." He added that Aliyev then buries these
soldiers solemnly in the meanwhile burring his nation's hopes of
resolving the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh through compromise.
Azerbaijan's war rhetoric on election day yesterday, certainly do
not contribute to confidence-building measures ahead of the Astana
meeting. Remains to be seen how the presidents of Russia, France and
USA, who have invested so much effort and time to peacefully resolve
the conflict will respond to this war-like rhetoric of Azerbaijan.
From: A. Papazian
Armen Hareyan
HULIQ.com
Nov 8 2010
SC
The Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan sharply
critiqued the war rhetoric of the president of Azerbaijan over
Nagorno Karabakh, after the latter said his country will use force,
if necessary, to liberate territorial integrity, without any regard
to people's right to self-determination. Last week, the foreign
minister of Azerbaijan spoke of optimism after Astrakhan meeting:
an attitude that apparently is not shared by his president.
On October 27th the president of Russian Dmitri Medvedev hosted a
meeting in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan with his Armenian
and Azeri counterparts. After the meeting Medvedev also spoke of
certain optimism saying that "the general principles for settling
the Nagorno-Karabakh problem could be drafted in time for the OSCE
summit that will take place on December 1-2, 2010 in Astana." The
main agreement in Astrakhan was the exchange of prisoners, which mean
taking steps that would develop mutual trust between the two sides.
Last week the foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov said
that he expected the summit in Astana to become "a turning point
in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict and all the same he did
not rule out the preparation of the roadmap on the settlement of the
situation in the South Caucasus region." His optimism is not shared
by his country's president Ilham Aliyev who yesterday said Azerbaijan
will resort to the military solution if the talks fail.
"The Azerbaijani state will restore its territorial integrity through
war. I do not doubt that we have all the opportunities including
combat readiness, material and technical maintenance, sufficient
arms and ammunition, a professional army, high spirit and the will
of the Azerbaijani people. We are able to restore the territorial
integrity of the country through war. And the enemy must know and
does know this," Aliyev said yesterday. He also went on to say "the
current Armenian state is formed on historical Azerbaijani land,"
a rhetoric totally contradicting the achievements of the negotiation
process mediated by Russia, France and U.S..
Armenia did not appreciate Azerbaijan's threat of force Armenian
response to the use of force and the claim on its territory was sharp
and swift. Commenting on the provocative statements by president Aliyev
the deputy foreign minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan released
the following statement. The statement is the partial translation
from the Russian version sent to Huliq by email from the Armenian
Foreign Ministry.
"Obviously the head of Azerbaijan continues to ignore his country's
own obligations to the international community and mediators, as
wells as acts cynically contrary to the documents which he himself
had signed in Mayndorfe and Astrakhan. He ignores the contemporary
international law and tries to act from the insolvent position of
the law of force. Astrakhan declaration calls for the strengthening
of confidence building measures through an exchange of prisoners and
dead bodies, but Ilham Aliyev is using this process from exactly the
opposit angle: to inflame tensions."
Kocharyan also said Aliyev sends death commandos to the line of
conflict "who according to his confession, knew in advance that they
will not come back alive." He added that Aliyev then buries these
soldiers solemnly in the meanwhile burring his nation's hopes of
resolving the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh through compromise.
Azerbaijan's war rhetoric on election day yesterday, certainly do
not contribute to confidence-building measures ahead of the Astana
meeting. Remains to be seen how the presidents of Russia, France and
USA, who have invested so much effort and time to peacefully resolve
the conflict will respond to this war-like rhetoric of Azerbaijan.
From: A. Papazian