NAGORNO-KARABAKH MAY BE RESOLVED IN MONTHS -KOUCHNER

Reuters
Dec 1 2009
UK

ATHENS, Dec 1 (Reuters) – France said on Tuesday it hoped the
years-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway
mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh would be resolved "in months".

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said during a meeting of
Europe’s main security body he was confident a deal could be reached.

The Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has
picked up the pace this year to clinch a peace agreement.

"In a peace process it is very difficult to force the door or to
push too hard because this is very fragile," he told reporters. "I
am confident it will be done. Immediately? No. In the coming months?

Yes."

France, Russia and the United States form OSCE’s Minsk group, which
is leading peace negotiations. On Tuesday, they met the Armenian
and Azeri foreign ministers in Athens and issued a statement saying
progress had been made.

"They stated the willingness of their countries to complete the work,"
said the statement read by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"They reaffirmed their commitment to work intensively to resolve the
remaining issues."

Tensions over the breakaway mountain region are rising, with
oil-producing Azerbaijan angry at a deal between ally Turkey and
Armenia to open their border, 16 years after Ankara closed it in
solidarity with Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

Turkey says it will only go through with its deal with Armenia if the
latter makes concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh, where ethnic Armenians
backed by Christian Armenia broke away from Muslim Azerbaijan as the
Soviet Union headed towards its 1991 collapse.

Some 30,000 people died and more than one million were made homeless
before a ceasefire was declared in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1993. The
territory wants recognition as an independent state, but without
a full peace deal sporadic exchanges of fire continue to threaten
fresh conflict.