AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTRY ABOUT LATEST STATEMENT OF ARMENIA ON NK

Today, Azerbaijan
June 27 2006

With regard to continuing traditional attempts by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia to distort, purposefully
and deliberately, the reality of the process of negotiations aimed at
the settlement of the Armenia – Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict,
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan states.

APA reports quoting the Foreign Ministry press center. The statement
reads:

"Statement of the Armenian MFA dated June 26, 2006 is yet another
testament to the regretfully unchanging non-constructive position of
the Armenian side on the conflict resolution.

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and, notably, the US Co-Chair Matthew Bryza
have indicated only the general outline of the individual principles of
stage-by-stage peaceful settlement, currently under discussion, which
can not be taken out of general context of the proposed document. This
creates prerequisites for lack of understanding or overlapping notions,
as well as for speculations such as the ones reflected in the statement
by the MFA of Armenia.

Definition of status is impossible under the conditions of continuing
occupation and ethnic cleansing and, accordingly, envisages liberation
of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and demilitarization of the
whole conflict zone, which, provided that appropriate international
security guarantees are in place, will create conditions for return of
the forcibly displaced population of Azerbaijan to their homes. This
is acknowledged by the Armenian leadership as well.

The Azerbaijan side once again re-affirms being prepared to grant
Nagorno Karabakh highest status of self-rule within the framework of
the internationally-recognized territorial integrity of the Republic
of Azerbaijan and based on the current Constitution of Azerbaijan.

Such an approach, based on the norms and principles of international
law and constitutional, is the only possibility to reach durable
solution.

With the aim of establishing inter-communal peace and harmony,
as well as creating objective conditions for defining the region’s
status, and also taking into consideration the perspective of the
region’s further development, Azerbaijan will be prepared to review,
in conformity with the precedents as existing in the international
practice, implementation of a complex of economic and other incentives
for the population of Nagorno Karabakh after the restoration of its
ethnic composition as of the pre-conflict period.

Position of Azerbaijan at the negotiations remains constructive and
meets interests of not only our multi-ethnic state, but also of the
international community as a whole. Any attempts to achieve changes
in the position through blackmail and threats, by using the tactic of
turning the occupied territories of our country into a hostage and the
element of bargaining, are doomed to failure. Territorial integrity
of Azerbaijan is not the subject of negotiations and will never be.

Along with that, the Ministry re-affirms Azerbaijan side’s adherence
to continuing talks to achieve lasting and fair peace in the region.

All blame and responsibility in case the peace process is undermined
will fall on the Armenian side," the MFA states.

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