ANS TV, Baku, in Azeri
10 Mar 04

Mediators’ passivity may cause Karabakh deadlock – Azeri official

The passivity of the mediators in settling the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict may lead to deadlock in the talks, the Azerbaijani deputy
foreign minister and the president’s special representative for the
Karabakh conflict, Araz Azimov, has said.

The conflicting sides continue to stick to their previous positions,
he added. Azerbaijan is not going to give up on its principled
position. Azerbaijan is ready for compromises only within the
framework of international law, end quote.

Azimov said that Azerbaijan is ready to discuss the conflict
settlement and the status of Karabakh’s Armenian community on
condition that sovereignty and territorial integrity are preserved.
At the same time, he said that Azerbaijan has repeatedly put forward
proposals, but Armenia has rejected them. Azimov added that the last
proposal of this kind was a proposal that was discussed by the
European Parliament early this year and envisaged the opening of the
railway between Azerbaijan and Armenia in exchange for five of the
occupied [Azerbaijani] districts.

Azimov said that the Azerbaijani government was against politicizing
the Budapest incident between an Azerbaijani and an Armenian officer.
Azimov believes that the accusations against the Azerbaijani
serviceman of killing the Armenian officer will influence the talks.
He added that the Budapest incident should not have a direct impact
on the talks. This will depend on the sides’ wish to make use of this
issue. At the same time, Azimov said that unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia
has been trying to form a negative opinion about the incident by
making a fuss at the international level. In my opinion, it is
precisely Armenia that is trying to influence the conflict settlement
and is making use of this incident.