EuroNews, France
Nov 22 2009

Last chance talks over Karabakh

22/11/09 08:52 CET

The following article has been retrieved from the archive and no
longer contains the original video.

The Moscow mediated truce deal signed last year between Azerbaijan and
Armenia is on the verge of unravelling if talks today do not produce a
result.

A string of meetings to discuss the future of breakaway
Nagorno-Karabakh has led to last-chance discussions in Munich, but
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has already warned his country
would be prepared to take the
region back by force.

`If the meeting ends without result, then our hopes in negotiations
will be exhausted and then we are left with no other option. We should
be prepared for that. Work on building up our army over the last few
years has been undertaken for a purpose,`said President Aliyev.

Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, backed by Christian Armenia rose
up and broke from Muslim Azerbaijan during the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991.

Thousands died in the fighting until a ceasefire was declared in 1994.
Since then tensions over the region have coloured political relations.
It is again in the spot-light as Azerbaijan’s supporter, Turkey, has
refused to ratify an accord with Armenia to restore diplomatic
relations until progress is made over the future of Nagorno-Karabakh.