Deutsche Welle, Germany
Nov 22 2009

Azerbaijan’s leader threatens military force against Armenia

GroÃ?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Azerbaijan’s
President Aliyev (l) and his Armenian counterpart Sargsyan

After a series of diplomatic talks, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham
Aliyev says he will pursue the military option against Armenia if a
long-running border dispute is not resolved in Munich this week.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has threatened to use military
force against Armenia if the two neighboring countries do not resolve
a long-running territorial dispute during talks in Munich, starting on
Sunday.

The territory in question is the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave which has
been under the control of Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian forces
since 1994.

"If that meeting ends without result, then our hopes in negotiations
will be exhausted and then we are left with no other option," Aliyev
said on Saturday. "We have the right to liberate our land by military
means."

Bildunterschrift: GroÃ?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Nagorno-Karabakh is under Armenian control since 1994

Azerbaijan is aiming to strike a deal whereby most of the seven Azeri
districts captured during the war with Armenia would be returned.

The meeting between Armenia’s Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijan’s Ilham
Aliyev is due to take place at the residence of the French Consul
General and will be mediated by Western diplomats.

If war were to erupt, it would threaten a key oil and gas transit
region to the West.

It will be the sixth time the two leaders have met this year, and the
first meeting since Armenia normalized diplomatic ties with Turkey
after a century of hostility.

vj/Reuters/AFP/AP
Editor: Andreas Illmer

,,49157 82,00.html?maca=en-en_nr-1893-xml-atom