U.S. ENVOYS LAMENT FAILURE OF AZERBAIJANI-ARMENIA TALKS OVER DISPUTED ENCLAVE; WARN OF WAR
Aida Sultanova
AP Worldstream
Mar 14, 2006
Key U.S. envoys on Tuesday lamented Armenia and Azerbaijan’s failure to
reach agreement over the final status of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave, and warned of the danger of renewed fighting.
Armenia and Azerbaijan remain at odds over the status of the ethnic
Armenian enclave located within Azerbaijan. A cease-fire agreement
was reached in 1994 after six years of fighting, and Nagorno-Karabakh
is now under the control of ethnic Armenians, whose troops face
Azerbaijani forces across a half-mile-wide (kilometer-wide) no
man’s land.
Sporadic clashes, however, break out along the Nagorno-Karabakh border,
and land mines continue to kill people every year.
Talks held in Rambouillet, France, to resolve the enclave’s status
broke down last month. Since then, violence has risen sharply, and
the two countries’ presidents have traded increasingly bellicose
statements.
The conflict has held up development of the entire Caucasus region.
Steven Mann, the U.S. envoy to the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe’s so-called Minsk Group of mediators, said the
two sides should be prepared to offer some concessions to resolve
the dispute.
“Realistically, no side is going to achieve 100 percent of its
demands. It’s not the way life works. But from what I see from inside
of the negotiations, both Azerbaijan and Armenia can achieve some items
which will be very welcomed by their peoples,” Mann told reporters
in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.
“As for military action, let me say this _ it really would be a
catastrophe for each side. No war, whether it is now, or in 20 years,
will be quick or decisive,” he said.
Speaking after meetings with President Ilham Aliev and other
Azerbaijani officials, Daniel Fried, assistant U.S. secretary of
state for European Affairs and Eurasian Affairs, said that talks
needed to resume.
“I should say also that it is our view that the process of Azerbaijanis
returning to Azerbaijani lands should begin as soon as possible,
and that war would be a catastrophe for everyone,” Fried said.
In the Armenian capital, Yerevan, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said
the fact that Armenia was even holding negotiations with Azerbaijan
was a concession and an indication of Yerevan’s peaceful, compromising
approach.
“Unfortunately, the authorities in Azerbaijan are complicating the
very peaceful coexistence of our two peoples,” he said in an interview
published in the newspaper Azg.
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Associated Press writer Avet Demourian contributed to this report
from Yerevan, Armenia.