ARMENIA LIKELY TO FREEZE TALKS IF TWO ISSUES DISCONNECTED: ALIYEV

News.am
13:53 / 01/28/2010

Turkey-Armenia reconciliation, Karabakh conflict settlement and gas
issues were touched upon by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in
an interview with The Wall Street Journal on the threshold of World
Economic Forum in Davos this week.

Commenting on linkage of Armenia-Turkey rapprochement with Karabakh
peace process, Aliyev said, "There is a common understanding in the
region that there should be a first step by Armenia to start the
liberation of the occupied territories," adding that Turkey fully
understands the issue.

However, Aliyev reckons that Armenia will probably freeze talks with
Azerbaijan, "if the two issues are disconnected." According to the
daily, president is confident Turkey will not ratify the Protocols
until Armenia returns "occupied" territories to Azerbaijan.

As to gas supplies, Azerbaijan can export natural gas to Turkey,
Georgia, Iran and Russia, Aliyev mentioned. Speaking about delay in
construction of Nabucco project, he underlined "Gazprom has said it
will buy whatever we supply."