Azeri official points at economic disadvantage of Armenians in Karabakh

Trend news agency
18 Jul 05

Baku, 18 July, Correspondent R. Abdullayev: The Armenian community
of Nagornyy Karabakh has lost more than it gained in the ongoing
conflict with the Azerbaijani side, the deputy foreign minister of
Azerbaijan, Araz Azimov, said on 18 July at a news briefing dedicated
to the outcome of the visit of the OSCE co-chairmen to Baku.

Azimov stressed that the pseudo-formation called the Nagornyy Karabakh
Republic is not in a position to meet social needs of its population.

“The Armenians living in Karabakh, like all other citizens of
our republic, could have taken advantage of the economic growth in
Azerbaijan [if Karabakh was part of Azerbaijan],” he said, stressing
that Baku would not maintain its current stand on the matter should
any other form of settlement be proposed. [Passage omitted: comment
on advantages of the Agdam-Sahbuz road]