Russian president warns potential for conflict in South Caucasus still high
The Associated PressPublished: January 24, 2007

International Herald Tribune, France
Jan 24 2007

SOCHI, Russia: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned that
the potential for a new outbreak of fighting in the strategic South
Caucasus remained high and pledged that Moscow would work to resolve
the region’s most dangerous, outstanding conflicts – including the
dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Putin and his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharian, met one day
after Armenia’s foreign minister and his Azerbaijani counterpart held
inconclusive talks in Moscow on the status of the mountainous territory
inside Azerbaijan that is controlled by ethnic Armenian forces.

"The potential for conflict is still very high," Putin said at a
joint news conference with Kocharian in the Black Sea port of Sochi.

A shaky cease-fire in 1994 ended six years of fighting that left
30,000 people killed and about 1 million driven from their homes and
left Karabakh and Armenian forces in control of the territory.

Gunfire breaks out regularly along the border between the two ex-Soviet
countries and in the regions near Nagorno-Karabakh.

Repeated efforts by international mediators, including Russia, France,
the United States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, to resolve the dispute have failed, and the lack of resolution
has tied up development in the energy-rich South Caucasus.

"We have problems with Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

We are conducting active negotiations," Kocharian said. "The most
important factor is that the cease-fire introduced in the region in
1994 remains effective until now. This proves the intentions of the
parties to adhere to the peaceful process within the framework of
the OSCE."

Armenia is Russia’s closest ally in the South Caucasus, and Yerevan
in recent years has turned over a substantial part of its energy
infrastructure and network to Russia companies.

Among the other South Caucasus nations, Azerbaijan is increasingly
asserting its substantial energy reserves and its independence from
Russia while Georgia is actively seeking tighter ties with NATO,
the European Union and the West.

Azerbaijan, flush with oil and gas revenues, has also markedly
increased its defense spending and warned that it has the potential
to retake Nagorno-Karabakh from ethnic Armenian forces – raising
fears of a new outbreak of fighting if no final resolution for the
territory is found.

In Baku, U.S. diplomat Matthew J. Bryza, who is helping OSCE efforts
to resolve the conflict, suggested that an agreement could be reached
this year.

"There is a possibility to reach an agreement. I don’t know when.

It’s possible this year. Everything depends on the presidents,"
Bryza told reporters at Baku airport after meeting with Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliev and other officials.

"The meetings were constructive. I have the impression that your
president and foreign minister are demonstrating a constructive
position, said Bryza, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state.

In Sochi, Putin and Kocharian praised bilateral relations.

"We’ve tackled everything in energy and now focus on transport and
industry," Putin was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying. "Our bilateral
trade is growing and direct contacts between our people are on the
ascent."

"Last year was very successful in bilateral relations. We reached
agreements on very serious projects in economics and I very much
hope that this year will be that of their practical realization,"
Kocharian told Putin in televised comments.

___

Associated Press writer Aida Sultanova contributed to this report
from Baku, Azerbaijan.