Baku may talk with Nagorno-Karabakh if Armenia withdraws – official

Interfax
Dec 27 2004

Baku may talk with Nagorno-Karabakh if Armenia withdraws – official

Baku. (Interfax-Azerbaijan) – Baku is prepared to enter into dialog
with the leadership of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-
Karabakh on condition that Armenia withdraws from negotiations.

“In principle, this [dialog between Baku and Nagorno-Karabakh] could
be possible, but in this case the Armenian leadership must officially
declare its withdrawal from the conflict and the further non-
interference in it,” spokesman for the Azerbaijani presidential
office Novruz Mamedov told journalists on Friday.

In this case, Baku would negotiate with Nagorno-Karabakh as an
integral part of Azerbaijan, he said.

Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s after a
bloody conflict with Armenia.