UN turns down Azerbaijan-proposed resolution on Karabakh – Armenian TV

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
24 Nov 04

The UN General Assembly did not hold discussions on a special
resolution on the situation on the occupied territories [Nagornyy
Karabakh]. International news agencies are describing the developments
in the UN as the failure of Azerbaijani diplomacy.

Armen Martirosyan, Armenia’s permanent representative in the UN, told
a UN General Assembly session that Azerbaijan, which has initiated the
draft resolution concerning human rights and norms of international
law, itself does not keep to these values. The Armenian representative
stressed once again that Nagornyy Karabakh has never been part of
independent Azerbaijan and that the Artsakh [Karabakh] people exercised
their right to live independently and safely on their own land.

Armen Martirosyan noted that the Azerbaijani sides’ resolution includes
selectively references to the UN’s basic concepts. The document says
nothing about people’s right to self-determination.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov noted that the UN
General Assembly discussed the same issue 11 years ago and expressed
support to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group to settle the conflict,
but these efforts have yielded no result.

Speaking on behalf of the Minsk Group, which includes the USA, France
and Russia, US ambassador (?Susan Moore) said that talks on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict settlement within the framework of the
Minsk Group had yielded positive results. Moore said that progress in
the peaceful negotiations could be reached only by building confidence
between the conflicting sides.