Armenia says Azerbaijan-proposed U.N. resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh would kill negotiations

The Associated Press
11/23/04 13:27 EST

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – The Armenian foreign minister said Tuesday that
Azerbaijan’s push for a United Nations resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh
could kill efforts to settle the conflict through direct negotiations.

Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, has been
de facto independent since Armenian-backed forces won control over
the territory in 1994 following a six-year war.

Despite a cease-fire, Armenian-backed forces and Azerbaijani troops
continue to face off across a demilitarized zone, and shooting
occasionally erupts.

Azerbaijan seeks a U.N. resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh that it hopes
would reflect international recognition of Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity.

“Azerbaijan is making a mistake by initiating the discussion of this
issue in the United Nations,” said Tuesday Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian.

Oskanian said if the resolution is adopted, ongoing efforts to solve
the issue through direct negotiations would be “dead”.

The United Nations’ General Assembly was to discuss the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on Tuesday. In 1993, it passed four
resolutions demanding the withdrawal of occupation forces and the
return of refugees to Azerbaijan, but none of those has been enforced.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev voiced hope Monday that a new
resolution would help solve the conflict and accused Armenia
of hindering the adoption of the resolution and stalling
negotiations. Aliev said Azerbaijan would only be too glad to
see Armenia drop out of the talks and leave negotiations to
Nagorno-Karabakh.

In a separate development, the Armenian Defense Ministry said Tuesday
that five Nagorno-Karabakh soldiers were killed and several others
injured in a road accident while traveling in a military truck.
It gave no further details on the accident that occurred on Monday.