Rice urges Armenian, Azerbaijani leaders to settle Nagorno-Karabakh
problem at summit
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is urging the
leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia to settle their lingering
disagreements over the Nagorno-Karabakh region at a summit conference
in Russia.
Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Robert Kocharian of Armenia
are meeting Saturday in the Russian Volga city of Kazan at a summit
conference of the Commonwealth of Independent States, 12 former
republics of the Soviet Union.
Rice telephoned Aliyev and Kocharian on Thursday to “stress to them
the importance that the United States attaches” to their meeting, the
State Department said.
The office of the department spokesman said in a written statement
that Rice expressed the hope to the two presidents that they “will
make the compromises necessary in order to reach a settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.” The statement said the two were upbeat
about prospects for progress.
A cease-fire has kept the fragile peace in the enclave since 1994, but
Nagorno-Karabakh’s status remains unresolved.
Fighting began after the legislature of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave
within Azerbaijan dominated by ethnic Armenians, demanded in 1988 to
be incorporated into Armenia. Both were Soviet republics at the
time. Thousands died and a million were displaced after full-scale
military offensives broke out in 1991, the year the Soviet Union
dissolved.
The State Department said Rice also stressed to Aliyev the importance
of free and fair parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan this November
and told Kocharian she hoped Armenia would work to enact
constitutional changes now before the parliament.
08/25/05 20:44 EDT