Moldovan, Azerbaijani presidents call on UN to help resolve separatist conflicts
By CORNELIU RUSNAC
The Associated Press
04/21/05 12:10 EDT
CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) – The presidents of Moldova and Azerbaijan
called Thursday on the United Nations to discuss separatist conflicts
in the two ex-Soviet countries.
“We are countries who have suffered from aggressive separatism,”
said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev, who met with his Moldovan
counterpart, Vladimir Voronin, during a visit to the Moldovan capital,
Chisinau.
Separatist movements in Moldova and Azerbaijan have hampered the two
countries’ development since they became independent in 1991. Facing
similar problems, the countries’ leaders vowed to collaborate in
resolving their conflicts.
Increased involvement by the international community would also help,
though, Aliev said.
“The truth and the international laws are on our side,” Aliev said.
The two presidents also pledged to boost economic ties and to
collaborate on their countries’ European integration.
Aliev was in Chisinau to take part in a meeting of a regional
organization known as GUUAM, which groups the ex-Soviet countries of
Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova.
The group was established in 1997 in a bid to seek economic cooperation
outside the influence of Russia.
The summit on Friday will also be attended by Ukrainian President
Viktor Yushchenko and Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili.
Romania’s President Traian Basescu and the president of Lithuania,
Valdas Adamkus, will also participate as observers.
Moldova has struggled for years to reach a settlement with
its separatists in the eastern, Russian-speaking province of
Trans-Dniester. A brief war in 1992 left more than 1,500 people dead.
Trans-Dniester is not recognized internationally, but receives support
from Russia, which has troops in the province.
Azerbaijan has faced ethic strife in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous
region that has been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the
early 1990s, following fighting that killed an estimated 30,000 people.
A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but the enclave’s final political
status has not been determined and shooting breaks out frequently
across a demilitarized buffer zone.