SOCHI SUMMIT MAY MAKE PROGRESS ON KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

news.az
Jan 22 2010
Azerbaijan

Rasim Musabeyov Monday’s meeting of the Armenian, Azerbaijani and
Russian presidents may define their stance on the principles of a
Karabakh settlement.

The meeting of Ilham Aliyev, Serzh Sargsyan and Dmitry Medvedev in
Sochi on 25 January may focus on the adoption of a document defining
the parties’ attitude to the Basic Principles of the Karabakh conflict
settlement, political scientist Rasim Musabeyov said today.

"This will probably take the form of the adoption of a statement at
least partially defining the attitude to the basic principles of the
resolution and paving the way for work on the framework agreement,"
Musabeyov said.

He said that a lot of work had gone into the visit in advance. The
Russian foreign minister visited Yerevan, the Armenian president
and defence minister visited Moscow and the head of the Russian
presidential administration is to visit Azerbaijan ahead of the
meeting.

"This proves that Russia is serious about promoting a resolution,"
the political scientist said.

Commenting on Russia’s increased mediation role on Karabakh, Musabeyov
said "this is a reality which should be used as a foundation".

"Everyone understands that only Russia can put pressure on Armenia. It
is also clear that Russia is not going to do everyone a favour for
free. In in this case it has its own interests. Relations with
Azerbaijan are profitable to it and give political and economic
dividends. Meanwhile, relations with Armenia do not give dividends
although they are a lever to take something from Azerbaijan. If they
want to get something from us, they will use this lever. But Armenia
is not profitable to Russia at all," the political scientist said.

Musabeyov ruled out a possible resumption of hostilities by the
Armenians to avoid an unacceptable solution to the Karabakh problem.

"Armenia does not have the forces to attack Azerbaijan today. Yes,
they can defend themselves in the mountains, and inflict great
losses on Azerbaijan, but any attack on the Azerbaijani plains will
be disastrous for Armenia. Azerbaijan has superiority in the air and
we will just destroy their hardware," Musabeyov said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress