Reuters
Oct 1 2004

Azeri leader says territorial row turning dangerous

Source: Reuters

By Magarita Antidze and Jonathan Thatcher

BAKU, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan’s president said on Friday that an
impasse over Nagorno-Karabakh was dangerous for the restive Caucasus
region and warned that his country would not wait forever to settle
the issue with neighbouring Armenia.

Ilham Aliyev said the oil-rich country would never surrender its
claim to the territory, populated by ethnic Armenians but legally
part of Azerbaijan since the Soviet era and scene of one of the
bloodiest ethnic wars that followed communism’s collapse.

“I agree that nothing is changing. That is very dangerous, I think,”
Aliyev said in a rare interview with the foreign media.

“International law norms have to be restored, the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan must be restored, Armenian military forces
should pull out from occupied territories. Only this is a condition
for peace,” the president told Reuters.

The dispute over the region began 16 years ago but it was in the
dying days of the Soviet Union that it erupted into a war in which an
estimated 35,000 people were killed.

About one million refugees fled to Azerbaijan where they remain,
though their grim living conditions have begun to improve since
Aliyev came to power almost exactly a year ago.

Thousands of ethnic Armenian refugees also fled to Armenia. A truce
was agreed in 1994, but there has been little movement to end the
dispute, despite international meditation.

Asked if by saying “dangerous” he meant a return to war, he said: “If
there is no peace for so many years and negotiations do not bring any
result, what can be the alternative?

“The Caucasus in general are not stable. Not having peace between
Armenia and Azerbaijan does not help regional security. The longer
the conflict stays unresolved, the more dangerous the resumption of
military action will be.”

COMMITTED, OPTIMISTIC

But Aliyev, elected after the death of his father who had ruled the
country by the Caspian Sea almost uninterrupted from 1969, said he
remained committed to resolving the issue peacefully. He was
optimistic of a solution and urged the international community to do
more to help.

Azerbaijan demands the return of Nagorno-Karabakh and other parts of
its territory occupied in the conflict. Armenia insists the
mountainous region, once ruled by its president Robert Kocharyan,
should decide its own fate.

“We want to resolve it by political means … we hope this will
happen. But at the same time, everyone should understand that we are
not going to agree with the fact of occupation and our patience has
its limits,” he said.

“We will never compromise on our territorial integrity and
sovereignty.”

When asked how long he was prepared to wait, he said: “If or when we
see and we are convinced that there is no use continuing the
negotiations, of course we will stop.

“When we see that all political means are exhausted and there is no
way to peacefully restore our sovereignty, then the Azeri government
will start to think about other means.”