MAMMADYAROV: "NK CAN HAVE AUTONOMY STATUS SIMILAR TO NAKHCHIVAN, TATARSTAN, BASHKIRIA"

Today, Azerbaijan
June 27 2007

"The framework agreement proposed by OSCE Minsk Group American co-chair
Matthew Bryza envisages main principles and ways of settlement of
the conflict.

"The issue on the status of Nagorno Karabakh is given priority in
the document," Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told
journalists.

According to APA, he said the status of Nagorno Karabakh was on focus
in the negotiating process.

"We need to consider the form of autonomy to be given to Nagorno
Karabakh. This autonomy can be in Nakhchivan, Tatarstan, Bashkiria
and in other models. There exist conceptual issues regarding the
status. The issue of status should be considered together with
communities of Nagorno Karabakh, and relations should be established
between these communities," Mr.Mammadyarov said.

Commenting on Armenian parliament speaker Tigran Torosyan’s claims that
Azerbaijan artificially delays the negotiating process, Mammadyarov
called these claims groundless.

"I have met with my Armenian counterpart more than ten times since
I took the post of Foreign Minister. We are ready to continue the
negotiations. The conflict is a sensitive issue. We realize that
it can be solved through stages not in package form," The Foreign
Minister said.

The Minister also said Armenia’s intention to make public the results
of all the talks held shows its non-interest in the resolution of
the conflict.

He also commented on recent massive fires in the occupied Azerbaijani
territories set by Armenian Armed Forces, "The Foreign Ministry has
written to the OSCE chairman Karel de Gucht. Personal representative
of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzei Kasprzyk will arrive in Baku.

He will leave for the front zone to investigate the issue of fires."

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