U.S. TO HELP SOLVE TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Hurriyet
HotNews.com
Saturday, September 20, 2008 02:15
Turkey

The United States will work harder to help settle a 20-year territorial
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, a U.S. diplomat said Thursday.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, visiting
Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Thursday, said it was more important than
ever now to resolve the Nagorno-Kaeabakh dispute, after Russia’s war
last month with Georgia.

"The recent events in Georgia underscore the importance of a timely
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," said Bryza, who has
been the chief U.S. mediator to end the conflict in the region.

"This is well understood in Washington and is the reason for my visit
this week," he was quoted by the AP as saying.

Bryza told a news conference that "the United States strongly supports
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan which has been under the
occupation of Armenia since the war broke out between the two states
in 1988-1994.

In 1988 when the disputed region’s Armenian-dominated governing
council voted to secede from Azerbijan, it set of a series of bloody
clashes both between and within the two neighboring countries. Some
10 percent of the Azeri population was displaced.

A ceasefire was signed between the two former Soviet republics in
1994 but the dispute remains unresolved after more than a decade
of negotiations.

Gunfire breaks out regularly near Nagorno-Karabakh, and without
resolution on the region’s status many fear a new war.