ARMENIA THREATENS AZERIS WITH KARABAKH RECOGNITION
Nov 23 2009
Turkey
Armenian forces occupied the territory of 100,000 people and seven
surrounding Azeri districts.
Armenia said on Monday it could recognise breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh as
an independent state if Azerbaijan carries out its threat of military
action to take back the mountain territory.
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev held
talks on Sunday on the occupied territory at the heart of the South
Caucasus, a strategic crossroads between East and West and key transit
region for oil and gas to Europe.
In comments broadcast on Saturday, Aliyev warned that Azeri patience
was running thin and that without a breakthrough soon, Azeri troops
were ready to take back the territory by force if necassary.
Sarksyan’s spokesman Samvel Farmanyan said in a statement: "It should
be noted that Armenia so far has not recognised the independence of
Nagorno-Karabakh for one reason — so that it would not become an
obstacle to peaceful negotiation."
"If peaceful negotiations break down and military action begins, then
nothing stands in the way of Armenia recognising the independence
of Nagorno-Karabakh."
Fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh erupted as the Soviet Union headed
towards its 1991 collapse. Some 30,000 people died and more than 1
million were displaced before a ceasefire in 1994.
Armenian forces occupied the territory of 100,000 people and seven
surrounding Azeri districts.
With no peace deal, soldiers on the frontline continue to be picked off
by landmines and snipers. No state has recognised Nagorno-Karabakh as
"independent."
Ankara says it wants Armenian forces to pull back before it ratifies
a deal to establish diplomatic ties with Yerevan and open the border
it closed in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan.
Media reports in Azerbaijan and Turkey say about a possible Armenian
pullback from the Azeri districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh in
order to clinch the deal with Turkey.
Mediators from the United States, Russia and France gave little away
on Sunday after Aliyev and Sarksyan’s sixth meeting this year, saying
they made "important progress" but also met some difficulties.
They said they would work with the sides’ foreign ministers ahead of
an OSCE Ministerial Council in Athens on Dec. 1-2. Reuters