Azerbaijani president says peace treaty on Nagorno-Karabakh only possible
after seized territory is freed

AP Worldstream
Nov 09, 2004

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev said Tuesday that ethnic Armenian
forces in Nagorno-Karabakh must withdraw before a peace agreement
can be signed.

“We demand with justification that the seized territory be freed and
the occupation forces withdraw,” Aliev said during a visit to Astara,
about 315 kilometers (about 195 miles) south of the capital, Baku.

Armenian forces drove the Azerbaijani army out of Nagorno-Karabakh,
an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, in the 1990s and took
control of several areas outside the enclave as well. Since a 1994
cease-fire, the sides have been separated by the so-called “line of
control,” a demilitarized buffer zone, but occasional shooting breaks
out and each side accuses the other of mounting small incursions.

Negotiators under the auspices of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe are trying to work out an agreement on
Nagorno-Karabakh’s final status, but no visible progress has been made
in recent years and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev has repeatedly
raised the prospect of military action if no negotiated solution
is reached.

“It is possible to sign a peace agreement only after the occupied
land is freed,” Aliev said.

Aliev also announced that this ex-Soviet republic would boost defense
spending next year. Finance Minister Avez Alekperov said it would
increase by about 33.5 percent from the 732 billion manat (US$149
million, Aâ~B¬115 million) allocated on defense this year.

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