Azerbaijani president: Armenia too dependent on Russia in territory dispute talks
By AIDA SULTANOVA

The Associated Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Russia is taking too active a role in the
negotiations over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, whose unresolved status
remains a source of tension for Azerbaijan and Armenia, Azerbaijan’s president said
Friday.

Ilham Aliev was reacting to comments by Russian parliament speaker Boris
Gryzlov, who said that Armenia was Russia’s outpost in the Caucasus region.
Gryzlov made the statement Wednesday at a meeting between Armenian legislators
and their Russian counterparts.

“We are confused: We have always considered Armenia a state, but now it
turns out that it is an outpost,” Aliev told journalists Friday.

“So whom should we negotiate with now – the outpost or the master of the
outpost?” he said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a bitter dispute over
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan’s territory. Ethnic Armenian
forces drove Azerbaijani troops out of Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s. Since a
1994 cease-fire, the sides have been separated by a demilitarized buffer
zone, but occasional shooting breaks out and each side accuses the other of
mounting small incursions.

“I believe that if these negotiations are conducted in a constructive way,
and the Armenian side does not go back on earlier agreed-upon positions …
we can come to certain agreements,” Aliev said.

Baku wants Armenian forces to withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh before a peace
treaty can be signed.

Aliev also said Friday that Azerbaijan is ready to fully reopen its railway
connection with neighboring Georgia only after it receives guarantees that
the cargo is not redirected to Armenia.

Azerbaijan closed its railway link with Georgia for five days in November,
barring about 1,500 train cars carrying oil and other cargo, on the grounds
that some of the cargo had ended up in Armenia. Baku then reopened the
connection partially – allowing in some trains, mostly those carrying oil – after
Azerbaijan and Georgia agreed that no cargo would be redirected to Armenia.

But Aliev said Friday that “smuggling and falsifications” were still
taking place.

“If it persists, the border will remain closed,” Aliev said. “We
understand that it causes harm to us and to a certain extent to Georgia, but we have
no other choice.”

12/17/04 11:22 EST