KOCHARIAN CALLS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF NK ARMENIA’S ‘NO. 1 TASK’

Associated Press Worldstream
September 18, 2006 Monday 4:48 PM GMT

President Robert Kocharian on Monday said international recognition
of Nagorno-Karabakh was Armenia’s top task.

Speaking at a forum of diaspora Armenians, Kocharian said "Our
position is this: the existence of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh
is an inarguable fact … An all-Armenian effort for the international
recognition of the NKR should be the number-one task for our nation."

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region in Azerbaijan that has been under control
of Armenian and ethnic-Armenian Karabakh forces since a 1994 cease-fire
ended a separatist war. The region’s final status has not been worked
out, and years of talks under the auspices of OSCE mediators have
brought little visible result.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev frequently states that his country
is prepared to try to re-exert control of the region through force.

On Monday, a group of Iranian businessmen were in Nagorno-Karabakh
to visit local enterprises and discuss trade prospects.

"The visit of the Iranian delegation to the republic
of Nagorno-Karabakh is a new step on the road to deepening
cooperation," said Anushava Danelian, the prime minister of the
region’s internationally unrecognized government.

Since the end of the war, Nagorno-Karabakh has remained largely
isolated, connected to Armenia only by a road running through
Azerbaijani territory. Nagorno-Karabakh proper does not border Iran,
but its forces occupy adjacent Azerbaijani territory that abuts Iran.

Iran has become a significant trade partner for Armenia, since Turkey
and Azerbaijan closed their borders in protest of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.