ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN DISPUTE SURFACES AT G-8 SUMMIT

The Associated Press L’ACQUILA
Friday, Jul. 10, 2009
Italy

The United States, France and Russia called mutually Friday for the
leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to settle a long-running dispute
over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

In a statement released from Group of Eight summit in Italy, the
three countries that co-chair a committee of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe said they "affirm our commitment"
to efforts by Armenia and Azerbaijan to finalize "the basic principles
for settlement" of the conflict.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been under the
control of ethnic Armenian forces since a six-year conflict that
killed about 30,000 people and displaced 1 million before a truce
was reached in 1994. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in
support of Azerbaijan during its conflict with Armenia. Turkey backs
Azerbaijan’s claims to Nagorno-Karabakh, which has a large number of
ethnic Armenian residents.

Mediators from the OSCE who have been monitoring peacemaking efforts
had reported in early May that they saw signs of progress.

"On the basis of what we heard from both presidents, we expect to
be in a position to confirm some progress during the next weeks and
months," said Bernard Fassier of France at the time.

The statement the so-called Minsk group put out Friday from the
G-8 summit said, "We are instructing our mediators to present to the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan an updated version" of a proposed
peace outline brought forward in the Madrid Document of November 2007.

"We urge the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the few
differences remaining between them and finalize their agreement on
these Basic Principles, which will outline a comprehensive settlement,"
Friday’s statement said.

Presidents Serge Sarkisian of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan
met in early May at the residence of the U.S. ambassador in Prague
as Washington and other governments pushed for a solution to the
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The presidents "were able in principle to reduce their differences on
the basic principles and … agree on the basic ideas that they came
here to discuss," Matthew Bryza, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of
state for European and Eurasian affairs and co-chairman of the OSCE
group, said at the time.

Among the principles called for in the Madrid Document, and which the
United States, Russia and France reaffirmed Friday, were "the return
of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control
and an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh providing guarantees for
security and self-government."

It also embraced "a corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh"
as well as a future determination of the final legal status of
Nagorno-Karabakh "through a legally binding expression of will" and
the right of "internally displaced persons and refugees to return to
their former places of residence."