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Washington Post
June 24 2011
Armenia, Azerbaijan fail to reach agreement on disputed region
By Will Englund, Friday, June 24, 4:50 PM
MOSCOW - The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met Friday in the
Russian city of Kazan to see whether they could finally agree to begin
peace talks over a region that has been disputed since the two
countries fought a war nearly 20 years ago. They couldn't.
At issue was Nagorno Karabakh, an unrecognized enclave within
Azerbaijan run by ethnic Armenians. Russia, the United States and
France have been pushing the two sides to negotiate for years, even as
they continue to trade shots over the border. Friday's meeting was
sponsored by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and President Obama
called the two leaders Thursday urging them to reach an agreement on
the conduct of further talks. But after more than three hours they
broke up without a resolution.
Lower-level talks were continuing Friday night.
`The two sides are simply too far apart, but the meeting is a helpful
strengthening of diplomacy over war,' said Richard Giragosian,
director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan, Armenia.
Each side has been stepping up its threats toward the other recently,
to the alarm of Russian, American and European officials who have no
desire to see an escalation of the fighting in a region close to
Georgia, Iran and the Caspian oil fields.
`War by miscalculation' is the biggest danger, Thomas de Waal of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said Friday night.
`Obviously, time is beginning to run out on Medvedev's initiative. It
doesn't look good.'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/armenia-azerbaijan-fail-to-reach-agreement-on-disputed-region/2011/06/24/AG3Y8TjH_story.html
June 24 2011
Armenia, Azerbaijan fail to reach agreement on disputed region
By Will Englund, Friday, June 24, 4:50 PM
MOSCOW - The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met Friday in the
Russian city of Kazan to see whether they could finally agree to begin
peace talks over a region that has been disputed since the two
countries fought a war nearly 20 years ago. They couldn't.
At issue was Nagorno Karabakh, an unrecognized enclave within
Azerbaijan run by ethnic Armenians. Russia, the United States and
France have been pushing the two sides to negotiate for years, even as
they continue to trade shots over the border. Friday's meeting was
sponsored by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and President Obama
called the two leaders Thursday urging them to reach an agreement on
the conduct of further talks. But after more than three hours they
broke up without a resolution.
Lower-level talks were continuing Friday night.
`The two sides are simply too far apart, but the meeting is a helpful
strengthening of diplomacy over war,' said Richard Giragosian,
director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan, Armenia.
Each side has been stepping up its threats toward the other recently,
to the alarm of Russian, American and European officials who have no
desire to see an escalation of the fighting in a region close to
Georgia, Iran and the Caspian oil fields.
`War by miscalculation' is the biggest danger, Thomas de Waal of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said Friday night.
`Obviously, time is beginning to run out on Medvedev's initiative. It
doesn't look good.'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/armenia-azerbaijan-fail-to-reach-agreement-on-disputed-region/2011/06/24/AG3Y8TjH_story.html