ARMENIAN, AZERI PRESIDENTS FAIL TO AGREE ON CONFLICT – BELGIAN REPORT

De Standaard website, Groot-Bijgaarden
6 Jun 06

Text of unattributed report, entitled “Still no peace agreement
even with De Gucht’s mediation”, published by Belgian newspaper De
Standaard website on 6 June

Despite intensive mediation by, among others, Karel De Gucht –
[Belgian] foreign minister and chairman of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – the presidents of Armenia
and Azerbaijan reached no agreement yesterday on the “frozen conflict”
concerning Nagorno-Karabakh. Robert Kocharian of Armenia and Ilham
Aliyev of Azerbaijan talked to each other at length in the margins
of the Black Sea Summit in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

Nagorno-Karabakh – one of the most militarized regions in the world –
lies in Azerbaijan, but, since a civil war at the beginning of the
nineties, it has been de facto an autonomous republic controlled
by the ethnic Armenian majority. Both parties are under increasing
international pressure to reach a comprehensive agreement.

De Gucht said after two intensive meetings with the two presidents in
Bucharest that they both know that they must carry on, and that the
international community expects progress. “But, for the present, they
continue to see more the risks than the opportunities of an agreement.”