AZERBAIJANI GREEN PARTY CONSIDERS NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT TO BE CITIZEN-POWER STRUGGLE

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Oct 5 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. S. Ilhamgizi / The Green Party
of Azerbaijan considers the Azerbaijani-Armenia conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh to be a citizen-power struggle, Mais Guliyev, the
Chairman of the Party, said.

The main essence of the US foreign policy is to split countries by
pitting the opposition against the Authorities, Guliyev said.

"The US always supports national and ethnic group conflicts in order to
split the countries and achieve control over them," the Chairman said.

Joining Azerbaijan to NATO will freeze the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
the Chairman considers.

Some participants of the meeting did not agree with the party’s
position. Razi Nurullayev, an independent political scientist, said the
US position concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict does not differ
from positions of other countries. The US recognizes the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan. Nurullayev believes the US’ demands to to
liberate the Azerbaijani territories from Armenia to be impossible.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful
negotiations.