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Baku Rejects Sniper Withdrawal

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  • Baku Rejects Sniper Withdrawal

    BAKU REJECTS SNIPER WITHDRAWAL

    Asbarez
    Thursday, June 14th, 2012

    Azeri foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov (right) with OSCE chairman
    Eamon Gilmore in Baku

    BAKU (RFE/RL)-Azerbaijan effectively rejected on Thursday renewed
    international calls for the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
    to unconditionally withdraw snipers from "the line of contact" and
    agree to joint investigations of growing truce violations there.

    Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore, the chairman-in-office of the
    Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, voiced such calls
    when visited Yerevan and Baku this week. He reportedly insisted on
    the need for a concrete mechanism for such investigations after talks
    with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov on Thursday.

    News reports quoted Mammadyarov as saying that Baku agrees with the
    idea, advanced by international mediators, in principle. "But that
    mechanism could work only when Armenian troops start withdrawing from
    Azerbaijan's occupied territories," he said, according to the APA
    news agency. "Only in that case can the mechanism be put into action."

    "If we start applying that mechanism now, that will only mean
    reinforcing the status quo, which is unacceptable," Mammadyarov told
    a joint news conference with Gilmore.

    "If Armenia does not want its soldiers to die, then it must liberate
    Azerbaijan's lands. If this happens, there will be no need for
    snipers," added the Azerbaijani foreign minister.

    The Armenian side has voiced support for both sniper withdrawal and
    joint investigations. Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian reaffirmed
    this stance after his meeting with Gilmore on Tuesday.

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