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AZERBAIJAN DISMISSES OSCE PROPOSAL TO WITHDRAW SNIPERS
By Zulfugar Agayev on
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-14/azerbaijan-dismisses-osce-proposal-to-withdraw-snipers
June 14, 2012
Azerbaijan spurned a proposal by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe to halt shooting in its territorial dispute
with Armenia, saying it would do so only if its neighbor did the same.
"We would be ready to withdraw snipers if Armenia started withdrawing
from Azerbaijan's occupied territory," Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov told reporters today in Baku, the capital. "In the current
circumstances, however, that would strengthen the status quo."
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mostly
ethnic Armenian region that broke free of Baku's control after
the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991. The war left
Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding Azeri districts under Armenian
control. Hostilities largely ended with a Russia- brokered cease-fire
agreement in 1994, though a peace agreement has never been signed.
Eamon Gilmore, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Ireland,
which holds the OSCE rotating chairmanship in 2012, told the same
press conference that withdrawal of snipers is important to prevent
the conflict from escalating.
At least nine soldiers were killed in border clashes between the
Azeri and Armenian forces last week as visiting U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton warned of a broader regional conflict with
"disastrous and unpredictable" consequences.
Azerbaijan is the third-largest oil producer in the former Soviet
Union after Russia and Kazakhstan. BP Plc (BP/) and its partners have
invested $35 billion in Azerbaijan's energy projects since 1992.
To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at
[email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm
at [email protected]
By Zulfugar Agayev on
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-14/azerbaijan-dismisses-osce-proposal-to-withdraw-snipers
June 14, 2012
Azerbaijan spurned a proposal by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe to halt shooting in its territorial dispute
with Armenia, saying it would do so only if its neighbor did the same.
"We would be ready to withdraw snipers if Armenia started withdrawing
from Azerbaijan's occupied territory," Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov told reporters today in Baku, the capital. "In the current
circumstances, however, that would strengthen the status quo."
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mostly
ethnic Armenian region that broke free of Baku's control after
the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991. The war left
Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding Azeri districts under Armenian
control. Hostilities largely ended with a Russia- brokered cease-fire
agreement in 1994, though a peace agreement has never been signed.
Eamon Gilmore, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Ireland,
which holds the OSCE rotating chairmanship in 2012, told the same
press conference that withdrawal of snipers is important to prevent
the conflict from escalating.
At least nine soldiers were killed in border clashes between the
Azeri and Armenian forces last week as visiting U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton warned of a broader regional conflict with
"disastrous and unpredictable" consequences.
Azerbaijan is the third-largest oil producer in the former Soviet
Union after Russia and Kazakhstan. BP Plc (BP/) and its partners have
invested $35 billion in Azerbaijan's energy projects since 1992.
To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at
[email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm
at [email protected]