Press TV, Iran
Nov 21 2009
Azerbaijan threatens Armenia with ‘military force’
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:36:48 GMT
Azerbaijan says it has "the full right" to resort to military action
in order to liberate the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which it lost to
Armenia in the 1990s.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday that if an upcoming
meeting with his Armenian counterpart ends short of a deal on the
matter "then our hopes in negotiations will be exhausted and then we
are left with no other option" than to reclaim the territory by force,
the Reuters news agency reported.
"We are doing that because we never excluded and we do not exclude
that option. We have the full right to liberate our land by military
means," he added.
Azerbaijan lost control over the region in a rebellion by local
Armenians, who were supported by Yerevan’s military. The conflict
killed tens of thousands of people rendering more than a million
others homeless.
"That meeting must play a decisive role in the process of
negotiations," the Azerbaijani president noted as he was preparing to
attend talks with Armenia’s Serzh Sargsyan in Munich on Sunday.
The international community has refused to recognize the de facto rule
of the ensuing Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
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