Armenpress

AZERI PRESIDENT RENEWS CALLS ON ARMENIA ‘TO END ITS
AGGRESSIVE POLICY’

PARIS, JANUARY 30, ARMENPRESS: President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev renewed his calls on Armenia
‘to end its aggressive policy towards Azerbaijan’
during a face-to-face meeting with French president
Jacques Chirac Monday, saying it was key to bringing
stability to the South Caucasian region and fostering
its economic development.
Azerbaijani state television said ways to settle
the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh was high on Chirac-Aliyev meeting.
Aliyev was said also to describe last week meetings of
Armenian and Azerbaijani leaderships with the OSCE
Minsk Group cochairmen as ‘useful."
Jacques Chirac for his part said France, as a
member country of the Minsk Group, ‘is exercising its
influence and possibilities for establishment of a
soonest peace in the region.’ According to Azerbaijani
state television, the two presidents also exchanged
ideas about energy projects and the overall situation
in the South Caucasus. Chirac was said to evaluate
highly the French-Azeri cooperation saying that France
will host the Year of Azerbaijan in 2007.
In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde on
Monday Aliyev said he prefers a peaceful solution to a
dispute with Armenia, but is not ruling out military
means. "It’s clear that our political weight will give
us one day the means to liberate our lands," Aliyev
was quoted as saying. "We’d prefer to do it
peacefully, without going to war. But if there are no
other means … we’ll see."
Diplomats from Russia, France and the United
States, who make the OSCE Minsk Group, said in a
statement Monday they were encouraged by what they
called the "constructive" approach of the leaders of
Armenia and Azerbaijan as they work toward resolving
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.