Azeri pressure group says Council of Europe resolution on Karabakh imperfect

ANS TV, Baku
27 Jan 05

[Presenter] The initiative to recognize Nagornyy Karabakh as a party
to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict should draw a sharp response, the
Karabakh Liberation Organization [KLO] said at a news conference
today. The KLO also regards as imperfect the resolution on the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe [PACE].

[Correspondent, over video of the news conference] The OSCE
fact-finding mission that is to visit Baku tomorrow [28 January]
cannot be expected to deliver objective results in the Nagornyy
Karabakh settlement, KLO chairman Akif Nagi said. He added that to
commission the OSCE to resolve the conflict was in the interests of
Armenia, but not Azerbaijan.

[Akif Nagi, speaking in the news conference] It is in the interests of
Armenia to hold endless, pointless and fruitless talks within the
framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

[Correspondent] The KLO chairman said that the organization would
react to the fact-finding mission’s work after closely monitoring its
activities. Nagi said that popular euphoria over the PACE resolution
was wrong. The KLO chairman said that some points in the resolution
were harmful to Azerbaijan.

[Nagi] An amendment was made to the resolution demanding that
Azerbaijan start negotiations with political representatives of
Nagornyy Karabakh over the status of Nagornyy Karabakh. I think this
strikes a very serious blow to Azerbaijan’s position. I believe
Azerbaijan should not agree with this stance.

[Passage omitted: KLO to stage a series of protest actions]

Baxtiyar Salimov, Azar Qarayev, ANS.