U.S. OFFICIALS SAY ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN AGREEMENT MAY BE NEAR ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH
AP Worldstream
May 16, 2006
Two State Department officials said Tuesday they were optimistic
about the possibility of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and
Armenia over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The two sides are closer to an agreement than they have been in the
past,” said Matthew Bryza, a State Department European affairs expert.
He spoke to a meeting of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus,
which was convened to examine humanitarian suffering in the region
a dozen years after the war over Nagorno-Karabakh ended.
Bryza said the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments will have to show
political courage to bridge the final gaps.
“We look at these next couple of months as a real window of
opportunity,” he said.
A second State Department official, David Appleton, said one sign
of progress is that the Azeri government is asking the U.N. refugee
agency to draw up plans for the return of the displaced to their
homes once a peace agreement is signed.
Baroness Caroline Cox, the British humanitarian and member of
the House of Lords, who has visited Nagorno-Karabakh 60 times,
criticized the United Nations for refusing to provide relief to
the people of the enclave under its policy of not doing work in
“unrecognized territories.”
She said the policy deprives the suffering people of the region of
much-needed aid.
“U.N. organizations working in Azerbaijan have been very vocal on
behalf of displaced Azeris but have been silent about Armenians
suffering at least as severely,” the baroness said.
“This asymmetry is unjustifiable,” she added. “The Karabakh authorities
have made repeated requests for help to the U.N. for assistance,
but these have been unsuccessful.”