Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 22, 2004, Thursday

Germany’s Fischer urges Armenia, Azerbaijan to settle Karabakh fight

YEREVAN

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Thursday stepped up
international pressure on Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the
long-running conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

Only with a genuine settlement could the Caucasus region as a whole
become stable, Fischer told Armenian President Robert Kocharyan in
Yerevan during a tour of the former Soviet Caucasus republics.

Germany and the European Union would assist the process, he said,
adding that “The main role, however, lies with the conflicting
sides”.

A shaky ceasefire has held in the ethnic Armenian enclave within
Azerbaijan since 1994, after upward of 25,000 people died in fighting
and a million were displaced.

The German minister also visited a memorial to the estimated 1.5
million Armenians who died during repressions by Turkish forces in
1915. Armenia has for years sought to have their deaths
internationally recognized as genocide.

Fischer visited Azerbaijan on Wednesday and was due to travel to
neighbouring Georgia later Thursday. dpa na cu

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress