OFFICIAL BLAMES MEDIATORS FOR STALLING TALKS

AzerNews Weekly
July 23 2008
Azerbaijan

A senior Azerbaijani official has blamed the OSCE mediators for
delaying talks on settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh conflict.

"The co-chairs should be aware that the responsibility for the endless
extension of peace talks and lack of any result rests with them,"
the head of the President’s Office international relations department,
Novruz Mammadov, told the Baku-based Ð~PТV channel.

Mammadov said he hoped for more substantial steps to be taken by the
OSCE Minsk Group (MG) co-chairs at their upcoming meeting in Moscow
at the end of July.

With regard to US co-chair Matthew Bryza’s welcoming both conflicting
sides’ adherence to the peace process, Mammadov said this was a result
of only Baku’s proper stance.

"As for Armenia, this country has never made any effort to ensure
peace and stability. The fact that full-scale military action has
not flared up between the sides to this day is the merit of only
Azerbaijan," Mammadov added.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has claimed that Azerbaijan’s
criticism of the MG co-chairmen was "a little trick".

"In doing so, Azerbaijan is trying to somewhat soften the mediators’
demands," Sarkisian said but he did not elaborate.

Sarkisian said the opportunities for settling the Garabagh conflict
in peace "have not run out yet". He 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
framework 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 country’s leader said, adding that Armenia
would do its best to strengthen its military.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the
signing of a cease-fire in 1994, but Armenia continues to occupy
Upper Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts in defiance of
international law. Peace talks have been fruitless so far. Meanwhile,
the MG co-chairs – Yuri Merzylakov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France
and Matthew Bryza of the United States – welcomed "the constructive
engagement" of Presidents Aliyev and Sarkisian following their June
6 meeting and the co-chairs’ June 27-28 trip to the region.

"At this important juncture, the co-chairs call on all parties to
refrain from maximalist initiatives on the ground, at the negotiating
table, and in their public statements, and to avoid all belligerent
rhetoric, as we work together in pursuit of a peaceful settlement,"
the intermediaries said in a statement released Tuesday.

"There is no military solution to the Garabagh conflict. Both
presidents called for invigorated Minsk Group talks during their
meeting in St. Petersburg. The co-chairs look forward to meeting again
with the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in the coming
weeks to press forward with negotiations on the basic principles for
the peaceful settlement of the conflict," the co-chairs said.

The mediators are due to hold consultations in Moscow on July 31. On
the following day, the two countries’ foreign ministers are scheduled
to meet.

–Boundary_(ID_yJ802XLeYakm8KPu6aQOxw)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress