AZERBAIJAN WANTS FULL AGREEMENT ON KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

news.az
Nov 26 2009
Azerbaijan

Elkhan Polukhov Azerbaijan maintains its position on the need to
reach complete agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conlict settlement,
Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov has said.

"Our position on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is
based on the principle ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’,"
Polukhov told APA news agency.

He was commenting on Turkish press reports on the outcome of Sunday’s
meeting in Munich of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents. Some
reports said that agreement had been reached on the withdrawal of
Armenian forces from five occupied districts.

Polukhov restated Azerbaijan’s position on the settlement process. He
said that first the districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh must be
freed from occupation, infrastructure must be restored, IDPs must
return to their homes, temporary status must be granted to Nagorno
Karabakh and then final status must be determined.

The Turkish press reported that the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders
could not reach agreement and had struggled to make progress within
the framework of the Madrid principles and Helsinki Human Rights
Declaration which were proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group to help
resolve the problem.

These are the points on which the two leaders made progress:

â~@¢They exchanged ideas on a fundamental agreement that will form
a basis for the final agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

â~@¢They agreed on the withdrawal of Armenian forces from five of the
seven occupied districts of Azerbaijan (Kalbajar, Lachin, Gubadli,
Agdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Zangilan).

â~@¢The names of the five districts that will be returned to Azerbaijan
have not been specified yet â~@¢Yerevan said that Armenia opposes
putting on the agenda the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from
the Lachin corridor connecting Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh.

â~@¢The leaders agreed in principle that the final status of
Nagorno-Karabakh may be determined through a referendum.

Elkhan Polukhov, like Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan,
said that progress had been made at the Munich meeting.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu telephoned his Azerbaijani
counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, to ask about the meeting.