ARMENIAN LEADER’S REMARK ON N. KARABAKH UNFOUNDED – AZERI FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN

Interfax News Agency
June 25 2008
Russia

Baku has described as unfounded Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s
remarks calling for recognizing Nagorno- Karabakh as a de facto
independent state.

"Nagorno-Karabakh’s current status does not differ de jure from the
status of other regions of Azerbaijan. In other words, it has no
special status," Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim
told Interfax.

"As for the de facto status, of which Sargsyan said, these Azeri
territories are de facto under Armenian occupation, upon the
termination of which it would be legally possible to grant a higher
status to Nagorno-Karabakh. As for now, according to the Azeri
constitution, Nagorno-Karabakh has no special status," he said.

Ibrahim qualified as flippant Sargsyan’s remark to the effect that
Nagorno-Karabakh has never been part of Azerbaijan.

"Such statements by Armenian leaders are not perceived seriously
enough, as the entire international community and international
organizations fully recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, which
joined the UN with all of its territories, including Nagorno-Karabakh,"
Ibrahim said.

Sargsyan said earlier that "the resolution of the conflict could not
be based on the deterioration of the current de facto state independent
status of the Nagorno-Karabakh republic." va dp