WPS Agency, Russia
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
December 31, 2008 Wednesday

GERMAN POLITICIANS ADVISE AZERBAIJAN TO TAKE REALITY INTO ACCOUNT

The office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin organized a
conference to discuss "Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Settlement from the
Azerbaijani Standpoint: Options".

Spokesman for Azerbaijan invited to address those present spoke of
territorial integrity and threatened to resort to military might.

Uve Halbach of the German International Security institute and Reiner
Dornseuver of the Council of Europe replied by saying that with all
due respect for the principle of territorial integrity, conflict
settlement should take the existing reality into account. Halbach
announced that the demands for territorial integrity were not absolute
and sometimes even impossible to meet (here a reference was made to
Georgia).

Dornseuver in his turn advised Azerbaijan to learn from the past
experience of Germany that had accepted the reality formed by WWII and
thus facilitated peace and security in Europe. He said that abandoning
this demand would advance peaceful settlement of the conflict and that
Azerbaijan and Armenia could count on assistance from the Council of
Europe in dealing with consequences of the conflict.

Source: Regnum news agency, Russia, December 29, 2008