AZERBAIJAN’S FM: STICKING POINTS REMAIN ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH

International Herald Tribune, France
The Associated Press
Dec 5 2006

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
said Tuesday a number of sticking points remain for the conflict in
the Nagorno-Karabakh region to be resolved.

Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed on the basic
principles of the status of the mountainous region in Azerbaijan that
has been under control of Armenian and ethnic Armenian Karabakh forces
since the 1994 end of a separatist war, but differences remained over
the speed of the pullout of Armenian troops from the province.

"Displaced people cannot go back when Armenian forces are still there,"
Mammadyarov said on the margins of a security meeting. About 30,000
people were killed in the 1994 war and 1 million displaced from
their homes.

Mammadyarov added that the two sides have agreed on the need for
the presence of international peacekeepers and quick rebuilding of
infrastructure in the region.

But he condemned Armenian plans for a constitutional referendum in
Nagorno-Karabakh on Dec. 10, saying Azerbaijan is still not convinced
Armenia is sincere about its determination to resolve the conflict.

The draft constitution says that Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, also
called the Republic of Artsakh, is a sovereign democratic nation.

On Monday, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oksanian told the
conference of foreign ministers from the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe’s member states that hopes are high for a
lasting solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Oksanian said last week’s meeting of presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan "gives hope that agreement is possible even on the most
problematic issues on which we don’t see eye to eye."

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said there is a "clear
engagement to come to an agreement in the course of next year."