TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Oct 5 2007
Azerbaijani Green Party Considers Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict to be
Citizen-Power Struggle
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.