No agreement on liberating occupied districts reached yet – Azeri leader

ANS TV, Baku
7 May 04

[Presenter] All the occupied territories of Azerbaijan will be
returned and all refugees will return home, Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev said, while commenting on the 12th anniversary of Susa’s
occupation [in Karabakh].

[Ilham Aliyev] This is our big tragedy and grief. The occupation of
Nagornyy Karabakh and the districts around it is the biggest problem
of Azerbaijan and the region. This is a danger. We are making efforts
to resolve this problem peacefully. We are faithful to the peace
talks. I have already said that if we had not believed in the results
of the talks, we would not have held these talks. We believe that the
negotiations will yield results and the problem will be resolved. We
will do our best to make sure that Azerbaijan’s right position is
highlighted in the talks.

[Journalist] Mr President, is it the [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairmen
who have put forward the idea of releasing the seven districts [around
Karabakh] or is it the two presidents who have reached an agreement on
this?

[Aliyev] The cochairmen have no proposals at all. The two presidents
have not reached any agreement either. If we had reached an agreement,
we would have disclosed it. This is Azerbaijan’s position.

[Another journalist] Mr President, have you discussed this issue with
[Armenian President Robert] Kocharyan? What was Kocharyan’s position?

[Aliyev] We have discussed this issue with Kocharyan, but I do not
want to say anything about this because it is up to him to disclose
his stance. Our position is no secret to anybody. We discussed this
issue at our meeting.