AZERBAIJANI CONFLICT SCIENTIST: KARABAKH SUMMIT IN PETERSBURG WILL NOT BE OF ANY PRACTICAL USE FOR AZERBAIJAN

Today.Az
tics/51643.html
Azerbaijan
April 20 2009

For already 20 years the conflict parties regularly meet in different
formats and different countries and no one rejects these meetings,
on the contrary Baku and Yerevan still repeat every time that the
"talks will be useful", said Elkhan Mehtiyev, head of the Center of
Peace and conflict.

According to him, if now the initiative was proposed by Moscow, there
are no doubts that Aliyev and Sargsyan will meet in Petersburg in June.

"But what a summit will it be if there is no foundation? Russia
considers it to be a mediator here, but Azerbaijan considers that to
some extent it is also a party to the conflict, due to the military
presence in Armenia and especially because Russia supplies Armenia
with arms.

Moscow must say the final word in the conflict, but it does not do it,
repeating only that it can be just a guarantor of agreements between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, which Armenia does not want any agreement and
even proposes that the situation is now changing in their favor after
the Georgian-Russian war, new CSTO solution, changes in the relations
with Turkey, after the Turkey visit of Obama, who made the Armenian
issue the subject of discussions", said Mehtiyev.

He said we should not forget that no positive results in the
negotiation process have been fixed after the previous meeting
of Medvedev, Aliyev and Sargsyan and their signing of the Moscow
declaration.

"Today Sargsyan makes the statements that completely contradict to
the spirit of earlier conducted talks. This proves that Armenia does
not intend to withdraw from Karabakh. It means that Yerevan intends
to attain the recognition of the legality of its military occupation,
legalization of its territorial claims. It means the armed resolution
of the conflict. Thus, in fact this Karabakh summit in Petersburg
will not be of any practical use for Azerbaijan", concluded Mehtiyev.