AZERBAIJANI, ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS MAY MEET IN JUNE

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 21 2007

Azerbaijan’s deputy foreign minister, Araz Azimov, was in Brussels
today looking for EU support on Baku’s stance on the conflict of the
Nagorno Karabakh.

Azimov spent much of his address to the European Parliament’s South
Caucasus delegation explaining why Kosovo should not be a precedent
for Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

RadioLiberty quoted the deputy minister saying "Kosovo issue is
different from the Azerbaijani issue, the Azerbaijani-Armenian
conflict. In this conflict, we have an open territorial claim by
Armenia. We have an open war erupted in 1992; even earlier we had
these military hostilities," Azimov stated, APA reports.

The EU has made clear it will not use a Kosovo resolution as a
blueprint for any of the so-called frozen conflicts in the former
Soviet Union while it was allegedly feared that the solution to the
Kosovo conflict could be set a precedent to the Nagorno Karabakh issue,
an Azeri enclave occupied by Armenia. Brussels says Kosovo is a unique
case because it alone is administered by the United Nations.

Azimov also argued that territorial solutions should reflect the
views of all sides in a conflict. To do otherwise, he said, would
undermine international law.

Hannes Swoboda, a senior Socialist European deputy, helped draft
a parliament declaration on Kosovo. He told Azimov he accepts the
Azerbaijani argument that the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh is quite
different from that of Kosovo.

But, he added, both cases are similar in the sense that it may be
"too late" to return to pre-conflict conditions. It’s a fact, he
suggested, that all the governments involved should accept.

"I think Kosovo never will be part of Serbia again," Swoboda said.

"[That] time is over. And at the same time, there may be some parallel
here for Nagorno-Karabakh. The question is not ‘What is the legal point
of view? Who is right?’ The legal point is clear — it’s an occupied
territory. But the question is what the key is to the future that is
good for Azerbaijan, Armenia, and the people in Nagorno-Karabakh?"

The Azerbaijani deputy foreign minister also said Baku prefers a
negotiated peaceful solution to the problem. Azimov said Aliyev and
his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharian, are planning to meet for
negotiations on the issue soon after the May 12 parliamentary elections
in Armenia. The presidents are expected to meet in early June. /APA/