AZERBAIJAN SHOULD TOUGHEN ITS POSITION IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT: DEPARTMENT CHIEF OF PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION

TREND News Agency, Azerbaijan
June 11 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend A.Ismaylova / The Azerbaijani side
highlights the importance of toughening up its position in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

The Chief of the Foreign Relations Department of the Executive
Apparat of the Azerbaijan President, Novruz Mammadov, said on 11 June,
commenting on the next meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan and
Armenia in Saint-Petersburg, that in this case, Azerbaijan may use
its leadership in the region.

According to Mammadov, the position will be toughened up both with
regards to Azerbaijan and the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group,
and international organizations and the international community. They
will be required to elaborate on their positions in Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

Mammadov said that the meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan,
Ilham Aliyev and Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, lasted more than two
hours. The meeting was hard. "Despite that Azerbaijan’s rating
is strengthening in the region, it was not enough that Armenia
demonstrates constrictiveness in the talks," he said.

He stressed that Armenia did not agree with the conditions of
the Prague process which envisages releasing the regions around
Nagorno-Karabakh, de-mining them, returning internally displaced
persons and placing peacekeeping forces. Mammadov said that several
years after these conditions have been met then an agreement may be
reached on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to Mammadov, there is a difference between the Government
of Armenia and the self-declaring head of Nagorno-Karabakh. Exactly
due to this, Armenia requires connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to the
negotiations process, he added.

Mammadov stressed that the sides decided to continue the negotiations
at the level of the Co-Chairs and Foreign Ministers. He did not
comment on the future processes on the peaceful settlement of the
conflict. According to Mammadov, if the international community does
not express a concrete position and does not make a proposal, there
may be an issue of military settlement of the conflict.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus appeared
in 1988 due to territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan.

Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani lands including
Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven districts of the country surrounding
it. Since 1992 to the present time, these territories have been
under Armenian occupation. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a
cease-fire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The
Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are
currently holding peaceful negotiations.