Peace talks will cease if ‘Prague meetings’ fruitless – President

Nation
30 March 05

Peace talks with Armenia will be halted if the Prague process yields
no results, President Ilham Aliyev told the third congress of the
ruling New Azerbaijan Party on Saturday. “If the Prague talks turn out
fruitless, we will face a different situation. There will be no longer
any need for negotiations and Azerbaijan will have to make major
changes to its strategy and political approaches.”

Aliyev said that international legal norms, economic and military
potential and justice are in favour of Azerbaijan. The Azeri people
will never accept losing their native land and will liberate the
territories by all means, hesaid.

The President noted that the tendencies observed in the talks are also
in favour of Azerbaijan.

Armenia’s non-constructive position is impeding the conflict
resolution, he added.

The Armenian government says the resumption of hostilities is not
likely.

“The chances for resuming the Armenia-Azerbaijan war are slim. Yerevan
has no plans to resume military action”, says Armenian Prime Minister
Andranik Margarian.

Margarian said Armenia does not recognize the independence of the
“Upper Garabagh Republic” to avoid negatively affecting the ongoing
talks.

The Armenian official said Armenia disburses loans to the separatist
regime to ensure acceptable social conditions for the population in
Garabagh.

Allocation of loans is legalized by the Armenian government, which
means that Armenia de-facto recognizes the independence of Upper
Garabagh.

The Armenian President’s national security adviser Garnik Isagulian
told Interfax news agency that the positions of Armenia and Azerbaijan
on the Upper Garabagh conflict have not drawn closer thus far and
major results should not be expected in this area soon. Azerbaijan
sees the conflict resolution within its territorial integrity, while
Armenia insists on Upper Garabagh’s gaining independence, he said.

“The truce agreement was signed by three parties: Azerbaijan, Garabagh
and Armenia, with the latter signing the document as a guarantor of
Garabagh’s security”, the Armenian official added.

The next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers
within the “Prague talks” on the conflict settlement, which started in
2004, is scheduled for mid – April.