CHIRAC URGES SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT

Radio Free Europe, Czech rep.
May 30 2006

May 30, 2006 — French President Jacques Chirac today urged
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to push for a peaceful settlement
of its conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

After meeting with Aliyev, Chirac expressed support for international
mediators who last week urged all sides to compromise over the enclave,
which is inside Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians
since a war in the early 1990s.

Aliyev and Armenian President Robert Kocharian have traded hostile
statements since talks between them in February in France broke down.

There has also been in increase in the number of violent incidents
along the border.

Speaking today at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Aliyev called
Karabakh “a black hole of Europe.”