Armenian president dampens expectation for meeting with Azerbaijani
counterpart

AP Worldstream; Jun 03, 2006

President Robert Kocharian on Saturday dampened expectations for a
meeting next week with his Azerbaijani counterpart, again accusing
Azerbaijan of being belligerent and insincere about peacefully
resolving the nearly two-decade conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Kocharian and Ilham Aliev are slated to meet on the sidelines of a
summit in Romania, possibly as early as Monday, for talks over the
disputed enclave, which is inside Azerbaijan but populated mostly by
ethnic Armenians, who have run it since an uneasy 1994 cease-fire
ended six years of full-scale fighting.

Talks held between the two leaders in France in February ended in
failure, despite international mediators’ involvement, and the lack of
resolution has hindered development throughout the strategic Caucasus
region.

Sporadic border clashes have grown more frequent.

“We are discussing a variation that, by my reckoning, allows a
long-term and peaceful resolution. But I have modest expectations for
this meeting,” Kocharian told reporters.

“The impression is forming that the Azerbaijani side is not fully
devoted to peaceful resolution of the conflict, which the militaristic
statements heard in Baku demonstrate,” he said.

Aliev’s spokesman, Novruz Mammadov, meanwhile accused Armenia of
stoking tensions on the eve of the meeting of the two presidents in
Romania and said Yerevan was not prepared for serious dialogue.

“On the one hand, (Kocharian) agreed to such a meeting, but on the
other, he is already anticipating no results. I think that Kocharian
wants to just protect himself,” Mammadov said.

“Azerbaijan isn’t conducting negotiations just for the sake of
conducting negotiations,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir
Tagizade. “We hope for concrete results. I’m not speaking of this
meeting exactly, but of the entire process in general.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress