FINLAND TO PUSH FOR END KARABAKH CONFLICT DURING OSCE PRESIDENCY

Agence France Presse — English
November 6, 2007 Tuesday 1:52 PM GMT

Finland will push for a solution to the conflict between Armenia and
Azerbaijan over the break-away province of Nagorny Karabakh when it
takes over the OSCE presidency next year, President Tarja Halonen
said Tuesday.

"We’ll do our utmost to strengthen the process concerning Nagorny and
we are cautiously optimistic that we can push forward the process in
a positive way during our presidency," Halonen told a press conference
following a meeting with her Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian.

"Being a very cautious person, I do not say that we can solve it,
but why not? At least (we will) push forward strongly," she added.

Finland is set to take over the rotating presidency of the 55-member
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe in 2008.

Backed by their ethnic brethren in Armenia, separatists seized Karabakh
and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s.

The war was one of the bloodiest of the many conflicts that followed
the collapse of the Soviet Union, claiming 30,000 lives and forcing
nearly one million people on both sides to flee their homes.

Armenia and Azerbaijan remain officially at war over Karabakh and
the dispute is a major source of instability in the strategic South
Caucasus region wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey.

Kocharian cautioned last week not to be too optimistic about resolving
the issue before next year’s planned presidential elections in Armenia.