RUSSIAN LEADER SEEKS NEW ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN PEACE PUSH
by Marina Lapenkova

Agence France Presse
October 21, 2008 Tuesday 12:30 PM GMT

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday proposed a renewed role
in mediation between Caucasus foes Armenia and Azerbaijan, amid a
rising push by outside powers for influence in the region.

Speaking in Yerevan on his first visit to the South Caucasus since
Russia’s recent military thrust into Georgia, Medvedev said he planned
to host peace talks on the war-torn Nagorny-Karabakh region between
the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"I hope that in the near future a meeting between the three presidents
will take place to find a solution to the problem" of the disputed
territory, Medvedev said at a news conference with Armenian President
Serzh Sarkisian in Armenia’s capital. "I hope it will take place
in Russia."

Nagorny-Karabakh, a region inside Azerbaijan, was seized by Armenian
separatists in a 1990s war that claimed tens of thousands of lives,
one of several armed conflicts that broke out in the dying months of
the Soviet Union.

Medvedev’s initiative comes as the United States and Turkey are
seeking greater influence in Armenia, a nation that has relied on
Russia as its protector.

In a sign of shifting political currents, Armenia took an ambiguous
stance on Russia’s conflict with Georgia in August and refused to
follow Moscow’s lead in recognising the independence of the rebel
Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Sarkisian said Armenia was ready for talks with Azerbaijan on the
basis of principles worked out at international negotiations in Madrid
last year, meaning that the people of Nagorny-Karabakh gain the right
to self-determination.

Soldiers in the Karabakh conflict regularly exchange fire, claiming
lives on both sides.

"Armenia is ready to pursue (peace) negotiations on the basis of the
Madrid principles," Sarkisian said.

Medvedev’s visit, in which he presided at the renaming of a central
Yerevan square as Russia Square, came amid growing Western attention
to the war-torn Caucasus in the wake of the August war with Georgia
over the Russian-backed region of South Ossetia.

While the Russian daily Izvestia pointed to Armenia’s isolation and
said Russia was its only real friend, other observers believe the
conflict in Georgia, which disrupted gas supplies in the region,
may spur Armenia into new alliances.

Russia currently has a military base in Armenia and runs the country’s
chief energy source, a nuclear power station.

The country is not only cut off from Azerbaijan but also has no
diplomatic ties with western neighbour Turkey, reflecting a bitter row
over Armenian claims that Ottoman-era killings of Armenians amounted
to genocide.

But in the wake of the August war in Georgia, Turkey, historically
a counter-weight to Russia, proposed a new format for discussions:
a "Platform for Cooperation and Stability in the Caucasus."

And last month saw an historic first visit to Armenia by Turkish
President Abdullah Gul.