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SARKOZY TELLS BAKU AND YEREVAN TO 'TAKE THE RISK OF PEACE'
Focus News
Oct 5 2011
Bulgaria
Yerevan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday called on
Armenia and Azerbaijan ahead of his two-day visit to "take the risk
of peace" and restart talks on the contested Nagorny Karabakh region,
AFP reported.
"For you also, the moment has come to take the risk of peace. Because
there is no greater danger than that of inaction, which gives rise
to illusions, fuels resentment, and delays bit by bit the chances
of peace every day," Sarkozy said in an interview to Armenian news
agency Mediamax.
"It's the same message I will bring to President Aliyev in Baku,"
he said.
Sarkozy will spend Thursday evening in Yerevan before continuing his
brief tour of the former Soviet states in the Caucasus region Friday,
visiting Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Nagorny Karabakh, a mountainous territory populated mostly by
Armenians, was given to Azerbaijan in the Soviet era.
It declared its independence after a war between 1988 and 1994 that
claimed 30,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
Although a cease-fire was signed, Baku and Yerevan remain at bitter
odds over the non-recognised republic, with Armenia insisting that
Karabakh will never return under Azerbaijan's control.
Both civilians and soldiers are regularly reported shot along the
Karabakh border, and Armenian forces last month claimed to have shot
down an Azerbaijani spy plane for the first time.
The latest peace talks held in Russia in June disintegrated into
mutual accusations of undermining the peace process and failed to
produce a concrete agreement.
Focus News
Oct 5 2011
Bulgaria
Yerevan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday called on
Armenia and Azerbaijan ahead of his two-day visit to "take the risk
of peace" and restart talks on the contested Nagorny Karabakh region,
AFP reported.
"For you also, the moment has come to take the risk of peace. Because
there is no greater danger than that of inaction, which gives rise
to illusions, fuels resentment, and delays bit by bit the chances
of peace every day," Sarkozy said in an interview to Armenian news
agency Mediamax.
"It's the same message I will bring to President Aliyev in Baku,"
he said.
Sarkozy will spend Thursday evening in Yerevan before continuing his
brief tour of the former Soviet states in the Caucasus region Friday,
visiting Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Nagorny Karabakh, a mountainous territory populated mostly by
Armenians, was given to Azerbaijan in the Soviet era.
It declared its independence after a war between 1988 and 1994 that
claimed 30,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
Although a cease-fire was signed, Baku and Yerevan remain at bitter
odds over the non-recognised republic, with Armenia insisting that
Karabakh will never return under Azerbaijan's control.
Both civilians and soldiers are regularly reported shot along the
Karabakh border, and Armenian forces last month claimed to have shot
down an Azerbaijani spy plane for the first time.
The latest peace talks held in Russia in June disintegrated into
mutual accusations of undermining the peace process and failed to
produce a concrete agreement.