Azerbaijan says no compromising over Karabakh
By Sevindzh Abdullayeva and Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 12, 2005
BAKU, March 12 — Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev said there
could be no compromising over Nagorno-Karabakh.
“It was a wrong approach from the very beginning. It was proposed by
someone and used for some time. I believe there can be no compromises
on our side,” Aliyev told journalists on Saturday.
“Azerbaijan did not seize other countries’ territories to return them
now,” he added.
The president believes that the only step Azerbaijan could take is
“give security guarantees to Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeris
who return there”.
Aliyev thinks this may become a topic for negotiations. He said he
would no object to meeting Armenian President Robert Kocharyan but
said there would have to be a topic to discuss.
“We have already met several times, and we can say that all issues
have been discussed and all positions stated,” he said.
The president stressed, “There are no and can be no changes in the
position of Azerbaijan.”
In his view, the groundwork for his meeting with Kocharyan should
be laid by “the negotiations between the foreign ministers of the
two countries”.
“If these negotiations produce results, and the Armenian side assumes
a constructive position and understands that the problem can be
resolved only on the basis of international law, then a meeting of
the presidents may take place,” he said.
Aliyev said, “Azerbaijan can take part in the negotiations as long as
there is at least a 5 percent probability that the Karabakh conflict
can be resolved peacefully”.
“If there are no results, we will withdraw from the negotiations and
solve the problem in other ways,” the president warned.
He also said ceasefire violations in the conflict zone that have become
more frequent recently had a negative impact on the negotiations. “This
does not benefit us. This is a provocation from the Armenian side,”
Aliyev said, adding that Azerbaijan was “ready to give a proper
response to any attacks”.