AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT HAILS U.N. RESOLUTION ON KARABAKH
Interfax News Agency
March 19 2008
Russia
The recently approved U.N. resolution for Nagorno Karabakh is
Azerbaijan’s political success, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said.
"We regard the resolution as another diplomatic and political
achievement of Azerbaijan. Once again the United Nations, the biggest
and most important international organization, confirmed the principles
on which the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be settled," he said
in an exclusive interview with Interfax on Wednesday.
The resolution "fully meets all the norms and principles of
international law. In my opinion, it also fully conveys the spirit
and essence of the negotiating process," Aliyev said.
He expressed gratitude to the countries that supported Azerbaijani
at the United Nations.
At the same time Baku "is surprised by the attitude of the countries
that voted against, especially as cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk group –
France, Russia and the Untied States mediating the conflict settlement
– were among them ." ml dp
Azerbaijani president hails U.N. resolution on Karabakh (Part 2)
BAKU March 19
The recently approved U.N. resolution for Nagorno Karabakh is
Azerbaijan’s political success, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said.
"We regard the resolution as another diplomatic and political
achievement of Azerbaijan. Once again the United Nations, the biggest
and most important international organization, confirmed the principles
on which the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be settled," he said
in an exclusive interview with Interfax on Wednesday.
The resolution "fully meets all the norms and principles of
international law. In my opinion, it also fully conveys the spirit
and essence of the negotiating process," Aliyev said.
He expressed gratitude to the countries that supported Azerbaijani
at the United Nations.
At the same time Baku "is surprised by the attitude of the countries
that voted against, especially as cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk group –
France, Russia and the United States mediating the conflict settlement
– were among them ."
"The explanations that official representatives of these countries
gave after the voting were positive, of course. The three countries
confirmed the territorial integrity of Karabakh. They again declared
that they do not recognize Nagorno Karabakh as an independent state
which was known in advance," Aliyev said.
"However, we regard this as an attempt to neutralize the ill feelings
remaining in the heart of the Azeri people as a result of the ambiguous
and I think thoughtless move in the process of voting. I think that
as mediators these counties should have abstained," he said.
He said that the future negotiating process will depend among other
things on the degree of confidence between the countries involved in
the negotiating process and mediators. "I must say that the voting
against the resolution did not add confidence, but on the contrary,
seriously undermined it," he said.
"The question that in five, ten or 100 years from now Nagorno
Karabakh will be separated from Azerbaijan has never been raised,"
Aliyev said. "Russia, France and the United States as cochairmen of
the Minsk group know that and support the approach. If that is not so,
they should say so, but it is so," Aliyev said.
"Thus the voting showed who is who. It also showed that even though
some of the mediator countries actively lobbied and canvassed
among U.N.
members to join them, their efforts failed," he said.
Aliyev said that Armenia’s stance on the issue on whether the Armenian
leadership will be loyal to the peace process is not clear to Baku.
"The Armenian side attempted to distract the attention of the world
public from domestic processes by fanning tension on the separation
line. But it failed. Therefore we cannot say anything definite about
the negotiating process now," he said.
Aliyev said the economy in Azerbaijan is much more advanced than
in Armenia.
"In its volume our economy is at least four times bigger than the
Armenian one. Today we have currency reserves of about $8 billion
and they will at least double within a year. We have development
prospects, we have a program, we have access to world markets, we
are not an isolatable or self-isolating country," he said.