The Moscow Times , Russia
July 13 2009
G8 Partners Make Plea For Nagorno-Karabakh
13 July 2009
Reuters
L’AQUILA, Italy ‘ Russia, France and the United States called on
Armenian and Azeri leaders on Friday to resolve their differences and
move toward a final accord on the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
`We urge the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the few
differences remaining between them and finalize their agreement,’
Presidents Dmitry Medvedev, Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama said in a
joint statement released from Group of Eight summit in Italy.
The three countries are co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group, which
is mandated to act as an intermediary in the conflict.
The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan are expected to meet in
Russia this Friday for talks that diplomats say could yield a
breakthrough in talks on the 15-year-old conflict over the enclave of
150,000 people.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto leader on Friday demanded a role in this
week’s talks, saying the current format is `deficient.’
`Artsakh, as the main party to the Azeri-Karabakh conflict, is now out
of the negotiations and we should restore this important principle,’
Bako Sahakyan said at a news conference in Stepanakert,
Nagorno-Karabakh’s main city.
Nagorno-Karabakh is known as Artsakh in Armenian.
`Without the consent of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh any decision
will be impossible to implement,’ Sahakyan said.
Ethnic Armenian separatists, backed by Armenia, fought a war to throw
off Azerbaijan’s control over Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s,
when the Soviet Union was collapsing.
An estimated 30,000 people were killed before a ceasefire took effect,
and the Christian Armenians and Muslim Azeris have never signed a
peace accord to end the conflict.
The West is concerned that any new fighting in the region could
jeopardize oil and gas supplies from Azeri reserves in the Caspian
Sea.
10/42/379471.htm