ARMENIAN MINISTER TRYING TO DERAIL PEACE TALKS, AZERI OFFICIAL SAYS

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006

Baku, March 16, AssA-Irada
An Azeri presidential administration official has accused Armenian
Foreign Minister of attempting to derail efforts to settle the
long-standing Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, following the latter’s
outrageous statement.

“Vardan Oskanian is trying to disrupt peace talks. As I understand,
his latest statements signal that he wants to negatively affect
the entire peace process,” the head of the President’s Office
international relations department, Novruz Mammadov said, while
commenting on Oskanian’s statement that Upper Garabagh “has never been
part of Azerbaijan and is Armenian land”. The Armenian minister also
maintained that if Baku does not recognize the independence of the
self-proclaimed republic, the occupied land would “never be returned”.

“Azerbaijan reserves the right to free its land from under the
aggressor country’s occupation and this is in line with international
law,” Mammadov said. He added that Armenia has recently been under
pressure with regard to the conflict resolution.