AZERBAIJAN INSISTS ON ‘SELF-RULE’ FOR KARABAKH

Radio Free Europe
December 2, 2009

YEREVAN — Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov says Baku
insists on restoring control over Nagorno-Karabakh despite accepting
the right to self-determination as a core principle for resolving the
Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute over the territory, RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service reports.

Mammadyarov said today in a speech at a Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe conference in Athens that "Providing
self-governance for Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan will be a
just and durable solution, and it can dramatically reduce tensions
and challenges for peace and stability in the region."

The remark highlighted the conflicting parties’ differing public
interpretations of the basic principles of a Karabakh settlement
put forward by the U.S., Russian, and French cochairs of the OSCE
Minsk Group.

The proposed agreement calls for the liberation of Azerbaijani
territories surrounding Karabakh and a future referendum of
self-determination in the Armenian-controlled territory.

An Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman said last month that
the principle of self-determination does not call into question
Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Karabakh.

The region’s predominantly Armenian population could only determine
the extent of its self-rule within Azerbaijan, he said. Armenian
officials insist, however, the Karabakh Armenians would be able to
vote for independence, reunification with Armenia or return under
Azerbaijani rule in the would-be referendum.

In his speech, Mammadyarov also accused Armenia of occupying almost
20 percent of his country’s internationally recognized territory,
displacing hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis, and destroying
their cultural heritage.

Speaking at the OSCE forum later in the day, Eduard Nalbandian
accused Mammadyarov of seeking to "distort" the essence of the
Karabakh dispute and international efforts to resolve it. Still,
both ministers noted that the parties have moved closer to reaching
a compromise peace accord.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress