ARMENIAN LEADER SAYS PROSPECTS FOR PEACE STILL THERE
Assa-Irada
July 21 2008
Azerbaijan
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has said the opportunities for
settling the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict in peace have not run
out yet. Sarkisian said he had come to the conclusion after meeting
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev outside St. Petersburg, Russia
on June 6. President Aliyev is inclined to continue peace talks, and
it is not ruled out that this process will lead to the resolution of
the Garabagh conflict, he told reporters in Yerevan. Sarkisian said
Armenia was ready to keep on negotiating within the set of basic
principles submitted by the OSCE mediators to Baku and Yerevan in
Madrid, Spain late in 2007. I believe that existing format will be a
success. Sarkisian said, however, that the two countries presidents
and defense ministers should not forget the possibility that war
may begin tomorrow, as a peace accord has not been signed yet. The
most powerful factor in talks is the Armenian army and armed forces,
the aggressor countrys leader said, adding that Armenia would do
its best to strengthen its military. The conflict between the two
South Caucasus republics reared up in the late 1980s due to Armenias
territorial claims. Armenia has been occupying over 20% of Azerbaijans
internationally-recognized territory since the early 1990s, in defiance
of international law. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but
peace talks have been fruitless so far.