AZERI OFFICIAL CRITICAL OF ARMENIAN LEADER’S REMARKS ON KARABAKH TALKS

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Feb 29 2008

Baku, 29 February: "The tenure of Robert Kocharyan is expiring and he
will not be Armenian president till and after autumn," Azerbaijani
Foreign Ministry spokesman Xazar Ibrahim told APA while commenting
on Kocharyan’s remarks that the negotiations on the Nagornyy Karabakh
settlement will be "frozen" until autumn.

Touching on the statement by the Armenian president that Kosovo might
set a precedent for Nagornyy Karabakh, Ibrahim described Kocharyan’s
statement as wishful thinking. He said that the world community has
repeatedly stressed that the Kosovo situation cannot set a precedent
for the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and that these two conflicts
are completely different.

"The Armenian side must realize that they will only lose from such
speculation, because the reality is completely different. The Armenian
leadership must understand once and for all that Nagornyy Karabakh
can never have any status outside Azerbaijan. International law,
the real situation and the international community have a unanimous
opinion. The sooner both the current and previous leaderships of
Armenia understand these realities, the better for them," [he said].

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress