Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
2005-03-30 12:35:03

Armenia-Azerbaijan: Close A New War?

(JTW) – Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan accused Azerbaijan of
preparing for a military attempt to recapture the territories occupied by
the Armenian forces, according to the Armenian sources.

Oskanyan said that Azerbaijani troops have moved closer to Armenian
positions along the heavily militarized frontline in recent weeks. 20
percent of Azerbaijani territories are under the Armenian occupation. Many
international institutions and conferences including the EU called Armenia
to withdraw their troops from Azerbaijani territories, however Yerevan
Government rejected all the calls from the US, EU and others. The Armenian
troops had occupied the Azerbaijani territories with the Russian military
assistance. Armenia is still a `Russian base’ while Georgia and Azerbaijan
have good relations with Washington and the EU.

The Oskanyan’ s remarks are considered `the starkest yet warning about a
resumption of the Karabakh war voiced by a senior Armenian official since
the signing of the May 1994 ceasefire agreement’.

Oskanyan threat Azerbaijan saying `The Armenian army is ready to give an
adequate response to any Azerbaijani offensive’.

Azerbaijan regularly repeated that the international community should
convince Armenia to withdraw the Armenian troops from Azerbaijain, otherwise
a war would be inevitable. However Russia, France and the US did very little
in convincing Yerevan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev repeated over the
weekend. `The people will liberate their native lands at all costs.’ `We
hope a mutually acceptable solution meeting all the international law norms
will be found as a result of the Prague process,’ Aliyev said.

(JTW)
30 March 2005