AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT ON SOLUTIONS TO KARABAKH PROBLEM
by Sevinc Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 29, 2006 Thursday 03:12 PM EST
Azerbaijan’s leaders will not accept any solution to the dragged-out
problem of the Armenian-populated enclave region of Nagorny Karabakh
that might infringe on this country’s national interests, President
Ilham Aliyev said Thursday as he met with public activists in the
town of Ucar 250 kilometers to the west of the capital Baku.
"Our position is open and clear-cut and it states that Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity can’t be a subject of any talks," he said.
Karabakh, a region with a big population of ethnic Armenians, has
been seeking secession from Azerbaijan as of the end of the 1980’s.
It was one of the first overt bloodletting ethnic conflicts to break
out in last years of the Soviet era.
Aliyev recalled that the entire world community recognizes Karabakh
as an integral part of Azerbaijan.
"This is a perfect legal basis for peaceful settlement of the problem
and Azerbaijan won’t surrender that position," he said.
Aliyev also made a general assessment of the negotiations process
that has been going on for more than ten years by now, saying it has
not brought any results so far.
"In some cases, it produces a lack of trust in it among the people
and among the negotiators, too," he said.
Aliyev reiterated Azerbaijan’s willingness to end the conflict
peacefully but said this country will never tolerate a loss of any
territories.