KAZIMIROV: WORLD COMMUNITY SHOULD AIM AT PREVENTING MILITARY ACTIONS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT ZONE

ARKA
June 26, 2009

YEREVAN, June 26. /ARKA/. The priority of the international community
is to prevent military actions and settle Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by
peaceful political means, Vice-Chairman of the Association of Russian
diplomats, former Russian Co-Chair of OSCE Minsk Group Vladimir
Kazimirov said.

"Any new war for centuries to come will implant the hostility between
Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples. It cannot be allowed," Kazimirov
told journalists in Yerevan Friday.

The former mediator pointed out that the priorities of Armenians and
Azerbaijanis are different in the conflict settlement. The priority
of the Armenian side is the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, whereas the
priority of Azerbaijan is to liberate territories lost during the war.

"What should the international community do, what should it think
and what should it do – give preference to Armenian or Azerbaijani
priorities? I am sure that we should not go into these issues that
should become the subject of difficult and long-suffering negotiations
and should be solved by Armenia and Azerbaijan themselves. The sides
should solve the issues of both the status and the withdrawal of the
troops from the occupied territories," Kazimirov said.

According to Kazimirov, the priority of the international community
should be to prevent military actions between the sides to the conflict
as the world has already experienced how acute this conflict can be
during the military actions in 1991-1994.

The international community should first of all try to prevent a new
bloodshed so that a path could be made toward historical reconciliation
between the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples, Kazimirov said.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict started in 1988 when Nagorno-Karabakh
with prevailingly Armenian population declared its withdrawal from
Azerbaijan.

On December 10 1991, just a couple of days before the collapse of
the Soviet Union, a referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh in the
presence of international observers where 99.89% of the population
voted for full independence from Azerbaijan.

In response, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale war against
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Active operations were ceased on May 12 1994 by signing a cease-fire
agreement that has been maintained since then. The military operations
led to about 25-30,000 deaths; a million of people had to leave
their homes.

Since 1992 negotiations have been held on peaceful settlement of the
conflict under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by
the USA, Russia and France.