AZERBAIJANI POLITICAL EXPERT COMMENTS ON ACTIVITIES OF PUBLIC COUNCIL ON KARABAKH

Today.Az
10 August 2009

Three proposals developed by the Public Council on Karabakh were
accepted on an official level over the last three years since the
council was established, council member and member of parliament
Zardusht Alizade said.

"First, some council members were part of the Dortmund conference:
this is US-Russian, Armenian- Azerbaijan public format, which developed
an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh. After this the development
was included in the list of formal proposals," Alizade said.

"The second proposal was about giving official status to the
Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh to enable it to participate
in the negotiations. The third proposal is to set up a group of public
support for the OSCE Minsk Group activities."

"This will include representatives of Armenian and Azerbaijani NGOs
that support a peaceful solution to be reached within the framework
of OSCE Minsk Group negotiation process," Alizade said.

He said consultative and advisory body called the Public Council
on Karabakh.has operated for about three years upon the initiative
of a number of prominent public figures, politicians, academics,
representatives of non-governmental sector of Azerbaijan, as well as
representatives of the Karabakh Azerbaijanis.

"The initiative to create this organization belongs to Arzu
Abdullayeva. This is not official and unregistered organization with
a greater circle of people. IT includes a number of other people as
well," the political expert said.

Alizadeh said that the experts are developing models of the Karabakh
conflict settlement, keep track of the negotiation process and attempt
to support their decisions at a public level.