ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN AGREE ON ‘PREAMBLE’ TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH DEAL

Today’s Zaman
27 January 2010, Wednesday

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed on a preamble
to an updated version of the 2007 Madrid document, which includes
the latest changes to the settlement’s basic principles concerning
the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev were hosted by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the
Krasnaya Polyana ski resort near Sochi on Monday for talks on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a territorial dispute between Baku and
Yerevan.

With mediation by Medvedev, Sarksyan and Aliyev reached a "general
understanding on the preamble" that would precede the main body
of an agreement on the basic principles of the settlement to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
was quoted as saying by Russian media following the meeting.

"There is a general understanding on the preamble of the document,"
Lavrov said, as quoted in media reports. He noted that the preamble
revised and updated the Madrid principles of the Minsk Group of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The Madrid principles envisage a stage-by-stage resolution of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict that should start with the gradual
liberation of parts of Azerbaijan bordering Nagorno-Karabakh that
were partly or fully occupied by Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh
during the 1991-94 war. In return, Nagorno-Karabakh should retain a
corridor to Armenia and be able to determine its final status in a
future referendum.

Although some parts of the document have yet to be harmonized, "the
sides will prepare their concrete proposals, their concrete wording,
which will be worked into the text," Lavrov said.

"We are sure that this will help the co-chairs in their future work,"
he said, referring to the three co-chairs of the Minsk Group —
France, Russia and the United States — which have striven to resolve
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for more than 17 years.

"The presidents have agreed to continue it [the work]," Lavrov said.

The considerably positive sign from the Sochi meeting is expected
to be welcomed by Ankara, which hopes that concrete progress in the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan will enable
Turkey to pass a so-called threshold to move ahead in its ongoing
efforts to normalize ties with its estranged neighbor Armenia.

27 January 2010, Wednesday TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES ANKARA